The French presidential elections are an opportunity to size up outgoing French President Jacques Chirac's legacy, both at home and for the Arab world, writes David Tresilian in Paris With only a few days to go before the first round of voting in the French presidential elections, there are signs everywhere in France that the 12 years in power of French President Jacques Chirac are finally coming to an end. Chirac, 75, was first elected president in 1995 on a platform of reducing the so-called "fracture social", the gap that divides the haves from the have-nots in France, which had widened during the 14 years in power enjoyed by his predecessor, the socialist François Mitterand. Though his performance on this score has been unconvincing, with unemployment as high as ever in France, and the gulf between those in work and those out of it still stubbornly large, Chirac was re-elected president in 2002 for a second five-year term. In a shock first round of voting, the extreme-right National Front candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, knocked the socialist Lionel Jospin, into third place, going on to face Chirac in the second round two weeks later. Chirac won with 82 per cent of the vote, easily sweeping back to power thanks to left-wing and other voters who disliked Chirac but were alarmed and fearful of Le Pen. Now, however, Chirac is finally bowing out of politics, having announced in March that he would not be standing for a third term as president and leaving the path open to the centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, who represents Chirac's own party, the UMP. The removal men have even arrived at the French president's official residence, the Elysée Palace in Paris, with last week's edition of the gossip magazine Paris Match featuring a long article, photographed by celebrity fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, on "12 years at the Elysée". Concentrating on improvements made by Bernadette Chirac, the president's wife, to the 18th-century building while the Chirac family was in residence, the tone of the piece was valedictory, with Mme Chirac indicating her preparations for boxing up the furniture. As Chirac himself also prepares to leave the Elysée, comment in France on his domestic record has focussed on his failure to reduce social inequalities and unemployment, the failure of attempts to reform the state pensions system, to reduce deficits in the social security system, and the shelving of reform of the country's employment laws in the face of last year's popular protests. During Chirac's 12-year term, the country's debt has almost doubled, the already high rates of taxation and social security contributions have continued to rise, crippling incentive, and the exodus of some of the brightest and best of France's younger generation, unable to find employment paid according to their talents in France, has continued. According to one French fund manager, now working in London, France had become a "middle-aged country" under Chirac's presidency, and one lacking in dynamism. Hundreds of thousands of young French people have left France for London in recent years, making the British capital an essential stopover in the French presidential election campaign. Meanwhile, the situation in France's banlieue, the sprawling dormitory suburbs that surround most French cities, has not improved. In late 2005, weeks of rioting in these areas, home to many French people of immigrant origin, drew attention to what the rioters claimed were inequalities in French life, young people of immigrant origin being more likely to be unemployed or in trouble with the police than their fellows of European origin. In foreign affairs, comment has focussed on the high-profile conflicts undertaken by France under Chirac's leadership with the United States, first over the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and then over US support for last year's Israeli bombardment of Lebanon. In the former conflict, France led international efforts to frustrate an American attempt to secure UN Security Council backing prior the 2003 invasion, finally threatening to use the country's veto and ensuring that the US-led invasion took place without UN authorisation. In the latter, France consistently called for an end to all hostilities, criticising the Israeli bombardment and appearing to be out of step with the British and American line of avoiding condemnation of Israel. Soon after the conflict began in July 2006, Chirac used his traditional Bastille Day speech to criticise the "completely disproportionate" attacks by Israel, adding in an interview that France wanted to see an immediate ceasefire, "accepted by all those involved". These statements differed from those coming out of Washington and London, which had broadly supported the Israeli actions and avoided support for an immediate ceasefire, bringing back memories of 2003 when France led efforts to halt the US-led invasion of Iraq. In the wider foreign policy environment, Chirac's presidency will be remembered for the government's failure to win French voters over to the proposed European constitution in 2005, which was decisively rejected in a referendum and later abandoned. All this has meant that Chirac will be passing on an ambiguous legacy to his successor, who will have to deal with issues either shelved during Chirac's presidency as a result of popular protest, or avoided for fear of unrest, such as pension reform and reform of the social security system. Despite their contrasting prescriptions, both the leading candidates in the current campaign, Ségolène Royal for the socialists and Sarkozy for the centre-right UMP, have underlined the need for change. As for Chirac himself, in a series of appointments rushed through in his final months in power, he has been trying to ensure that friends and supporters occupy positions of power following his demise. However, at least one of these attempts could still backfire. Rumour has it that there is little love lost between Chirac and Sarkozy, widely tipped to be the next president, and Chirac only came out in the latter's support late last month. A report in the satirical paper Le Canard enchainé has now thrown new light on Chirac's decision, claiming that Chirac gave Sarkozy his support in exchange for a promise that, if elected, the latter would halt the corruption investigations presently hanging over the outgoing president. Once a private citizen, Chirac will lose the immunity that he has enjoyed as head of state, and will be subject to investigation over allegations of corruption and the misuse of public funds that took place while he was mayor of Paris in the early 1990s and during his time as president of the RPR party, forerunner of the UMP. A spokesman for Chirac described the paper's allegations as being "strictly without foundation", and they have been denied by a "furious" Sarkozy. However, former French prime minister Alain Juppé, close to Chirac, was given a suspended 14-month prison sentence some time ago at the end of a similar investigation, causing his temporary removal from the political scene. According to a recent report in Le Monde Bernadette Chirac has "always been more worried than her husband about what might happen when presidential immunity ends." "'If the left wins, we'll go to prison,' she said in private some months ago," the paper said.
