According to Le Parisien, barring his wife Bernadette, the entire Chirac clan
is now behind Mr Hollande, including Claude, his daughter and one-time
communications chief. Claude is reported to have recently had lunch with Mr
Hollande’s partner, Valérie Trierweiler.
Relations between Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy have been notoriously checkered.
After idolising the man who gave him his first political break, Mr Sarkozy
held up his former mentor as his antithesis – a feckless “roi fainéant”
(idle king) who “fiddles the locks of Versailles while Paris burns”. He
famously betrayed Mr Chirac by resigning as his campaign manager in the 1995
presidential election and backing his rival, Edouard Balladur. At the time,
he was very close with Claude Chirac, whose mother described him as the
perfect son-in-law. When Mr Sarkozy dropped the Chirac clan, Bernadette is
said to have cried: “And to think he saw us in our nightshirts.” Despite,
that, she has become a staunch supporter during this campaign, declaring
that Mr Hollande “doesn’t have the build of a French president” before
backtracking slightly, saying she had been too severe.
Mr Chirac broke his silence on his one-time protégé began last year when he
described him as “nervous”, “impetuous” and untrustworthy in his memoirs,
saying he did not share the same “vision of France”. He meanwhile heaped
praise on Mr Hollande, saying he had the stuff of a true “statesman”.
Then while on a walkabout with Mr Hollande during a tour of the museum housing
his presidential gifts in Corrèze, he said: “I can say I would vote for
Hollande.” Later, he said that he “deplored” people interpreting what was
intended as a “Correzian joke”.
Reacting to the news, Mr Sarkozy said he was “sad” that others were seeking to
speak “in his name”.
“The best way to respect Jacques Chirac and the difficulties he has is to try
not to make him speak and be manipulated one way or another by his
entourage.”
Related posts:
Views: 0