Former French President Jacques Shirak died

He is the last one who was able to hold out for two terms in this post

At the age of 86, Jacques Shirak, President of France from 1995 to 2007, died. Under him, the country joined the euro zone, won the World Cup, suffered from terrorist attacks, but was able to catch almost all terrorists. He was a typical example of a traditional politician - the right, but ready to drift in any direction for the requests of the audience, an amazing speaker, which is difficult to distinguish from a demagogue. Medusa asked to talk about what the world, France and Russia will be remembered by Shirak’s rule, book critic, francophile and chief editor of the Gorky website Konstantin Milchin.

First mayor of Paris for more than 100 years

After the Second World War, the young communist Jacques Shirak sold the newspaper Lʼhumanité, but he began a large political career in the 1960s in the right camp of the followers of Charles de Gaulle .

His path was accompanied by corruption scandals, and falling behind the rise. By 1991, Shirak managed to work twice as prime minister, participated in the presidential election twice and once reached the second round, served as the mayor of Paris.

Shirak became the first mayor of the French capital since 1871. Then this post was canceled, and restored only in 1977. About the mayor of Shirak spoke differently. The townspeople rather approved, but the left predictably scolded for the "oburilation" of the city. One way or another, the modern transport infrastructure (high -speed metro Rer and the Intracity Highway), as well as the new quarter east of the Austerlitsky Station (rather terrible) were built precisely under Shirake.

Wrestler with migrants

“Imagine an ordinary French worker. He and his wife work in the sweat of his face and receive 15 thousand francs per month for two. And next to them, on the same staircase, the family lives - the father, his several wives, 20 children. Nobody works in this family, but they receive different benefits for 50 thousand francs! And I'm not talking about the noise and smell who drive our honest Frenchman-slave crazy. " The crowd laughs appropriately, applauds and supports the speaker in every possible way.

The case takes place in Orleans, in the yard of June 1991, the activists of the Gollist party meet with the mayor of Paris Jacques Shirak. These are his words. Especially for those who did not understand where the family of noisy and very smelling loafers came from, Shirak clarifies: no one objects to hardworking migrants from Portugal or Poland, but there are visitors who annoy everyone. And yes, of course, to say this is not racism at all, just France no longer has funds to finance the reunification of families. At the same time, he does not specify that 15 years before, in 1976, it was the government, headed by Jacques Shirak, achieved the adoption of the Law on “Reunion of Family”, which allowed the wives and children of labor migrants to move to France.

The question of "noise and smell" predictably provoked a scandal. The Prime Minister of France and the leader of the socialists Edith Kresson said that she was “shocked, but not surprised”, and Jean-Mari Le Pen , the genuine leader of the nationalists, was offended that his ideas were stolen, and advised the French to choose not a copy, but the original. The expression “noise and smell” became an important French political meme, but Shirak did not spoil his career.

Very unpopular president

On May 8, 1995, the French left were in mourning. On the eve of the election, Sirak still broke through the president. The Liberal newspaper was released with the Yernic heading “Welcome to Shirakia”.

The mid-1990s was not the most successful time for the French Fifth Republic. With the presidential socialist, Francois Mitterine, who ruled for 14 years, the right and left governments replaced each other. It ended in the fact that in 1993, GDP growth in France was negative, and unemployment by 1995 exceeded 10%. Student unrest shook the country: the government tried to reduce unemployment among young people, lowering the minimum salary. Students claimed that it was impossible to live with that kind of money, and they went out to smash the city.

In foreign policy, everything was also dysfunctional: the Mittein authorities got involved in the civil war in Rwanda, in fact supporting not just bad guys, but the worst - the very ones that arranged genocide . From Shirak they expected that he would come and put at least some order.

And, indeed, he began quite violently. Under him, they started talking about the privatization of the Renault Auto Concert. Then Shirak pleaded the guilt of France for the deportation of Jews during the Second World War, that is, indirectly - for the Holocaust; I decided to turn the army out of the recruitment to professional; Finally, he decided to resume nuclear trials. Greenpeace was horrified. The French military blew up several atomic bombs on the Muroroa atoll in Polynesia.

But Shirak made one significant mistake: he did not dismiss the parliament immediately after his victory. And since the measures of the new right -wing government to stabilize the economy were extremely unpopular, in 1997, the left -wing various rumors defeated the National Assembly in the National Assembly. The Prime Minister became Lionel Zhospen, who managed to slightly improve the deplorable state of the economy. Unemployment has fallen to 8%.

The next presidential election was to be held in 2002. Everyone was waiting for the triumphal return of the left to the Champs Elysees, the residence of the head of the French Republic. Most of the first term, Shirak spent a “lame duck”. And the victory of the French national football team at the 1998 home championship did not help him.

Fighter with those who fight against migrants

“Lefts lost the elections due to safety problems, that is, because of you, Daniel Wyan!” Already after the election lost by Jospen, the former socialist Minister of Internal Affairs was invited to one of the talk shows-and he did not spare him there. Vyan made excuses: “Well, the right ones have not done so much. Well, yes, they sent special forces to patrol dysfunctional quarters. ” The presenter attacked again: “But why didn’t you send special forces there? Why were the right ones, but you are not? Why, under the new Minister of Internal Affairs, Nicolas Sarkozy, the number of crimes fell by 7%? Why are Romanian transvestites with you a year after year have been engaged in prostitution in the Bolest Forest and only the right were able to smoke them from there? ” The minister was silent. He had nothing to answer.

Before the 2002 elections, the right, both relatively moderate (actually Shirak) and radical all stripes (like Le Pen) criticized the left precisely for neglecting safety problems, primarily on the streets of large cities. As a result, in the first round of elections, the leader of the socialists and the rather successful Prime Minister Lionel Zhopen took only third place, and Shirak and Le Pen reached the final.

And then the unpopular president declared himself the savior of the Fatherland from the French neo -Nazis, who actively opposed illegal immigration. Even the left, grumbling from displeasure, went to vote for the author of the Mem “Noise and Smell”. Shirak wins with a crushing account - 82% of voters voted for him. The socialists were defeated.

Friend of Russia and the enemy of the United States

It is known that Mitteran did not really like the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin. Shirak, on Yeltsin, was more neutral, or maybe good. In the 1990s, the Russian president called him only “a friend of Jacques”. Which did not prevent a “friend” from bombing the allies of Russia in the Balkans-Bosnian Serbs in 1995 and the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade in 1999.

But in 2003, when the Americans invaded Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Shirak did not support US President George Bush Jr.. Together with Vladimir Putin and Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schreder, they created the so -called “axis of good” - a situational alliance of countries that opposed the American campaign. France at that time was shaken by thousands of rallies. The president, recently hated by everyone, became almost a hero for the French, who with anti -American posters went to demonstrations.

Again an unpopular president

The first term of Shirak lasted seven years, the second - five. He himself organized a referendum on a decrease in the presidential term. As the end of the government was approaching, the popularity of the president fell. Pupils and supporters turned away from him, realizing that the sooner they began to criticize the unpopular president, the more chances they have in their future elections.

The subject of numerous rumors was the personal life of Shirak. At one time, he married a girl from the upper class, as it was useful for a career, and then began to cheat on her.

Sarkozy, once a protote of Shirak, was one of the first to leave the president. When he himself takes the post of head of state, his predecessor will be suspected of corruption. However, rumors about suspicious accounts in Japan, relations with large French concerns and lobbying their interests pursued him throughout his career.

But neither Sarkozy himself, nor Francois Hollande, who changed him as the president, unlike Shirak, could be re -elected for a second term - and it is not at all the fact that Emmanuel Macron will do it.

Konstantin Milchin