Jacques Chirac: charisma, clarity and a little corruption. The many sides of France's political colossus

Others writing abouth the death of Jacques Chirac concentrated on the womanising.

Since both Chirac and his wife, Bernadette, spoke more or less openly about his liaisons amoureuses, that is hardly unfair though my readers should never underestimate the indifference such extra-marital activity - and how people deal with an unhappy marriage, which we know theirs to have been - arouses in the French as whole.

For The National, which kindly allows me to reproduce my work here, I looked at the former president more broadly (and never forget that his opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - roundly condemned by the US and Britain at the time - has not seemed controversial for rather some time).

A friend and confrere in Paris wrote (it was a private exchange so I won't identify him): 'I liked Chirac because he was such a flawed human being: b*****ing along like the rest of us, and not being a pompous git, effectively' ...

See also: the day I admitted that I quite liked Jacques Chirac: see https://www.francesalut.com/2010/04/expat-life-owning-up-to-liking-jacques-chirac.html