Editing Jacques Chirac (section)

== Governmental opposition ==
=== Struggle for the right-wing leadership: 1976–1986 ===
[[File:EEG-top in Den Haag vergadering ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken vergadering, Bestanddeelnr 933-6981 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Jacques Chirac with president [[François Mitterrand]] (1986)]]
In 1978, Chirac attacked Giscard's [[pro-European]] policy and made a nationalist turn with the December 1978 [[Call of Cochin]], initiated by his counsellors [[Marie-France Garaud]] and {{ill|Pierre Juillet|fr}}, which had first been called by Pompidou. Hospitalised in {{lang|fr|[[Hôpital Cochin]]|italic=no}} after a car crash, he declared that "as always about the drooping of France, the pro-foreign party acts with its peaceable and reassuring voice". He appointed [[Yvan Blot]], an intellectual who would later join the [[National Front (France)|National Front]], as director of his campaigns for the [[1979 European Parliament election in France|1979 European election]].<ref name="Slama">[[:fr:Alain-Gérard Slama|Alain-Gérard Slama]], "Vous avez dit bonapartiste ?" in ''L'Histoire'' n°313, October 2006, pp. 60–63 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

After the poor results of the election, Chirac broke with Garaud and Juillet. Vexed Marie-France Garaud stated: "We thought Chirac was made of the same marble of which statues are carved in, we perceive he's of the same [[faience]] [[bidet]]s are made of."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives-lepost.huffingtonpost.fr/article/2008/05/03/1188869_la-cruella-de-la-droite-revient-pour-tacler-sarkozy.html |title=La "Cruella" de la droite revient... Marie-France Garaud taclera-t-elle Sarkozy? |work=Le Post |access-date=14 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822110854/http://archives-lepost.huffingtonpost.fr/article/2008/05/03/1188869_la-cruella-de-la-droite-revient-pour-tacler-sarkozy.html |archive-date=22 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His rivalry with Giscard d'Estaing intensified.

Chirac made his first run for president against Giscard d'Estaing in the [[1981 French presidential election|1981 election]], thus splitting the centre-right vote.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Chirac, ex-ally, challenges Giscard |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/02/11/260206.html |access-date=2022-05-14 |language=en}}</ref> He was eliminated in the first round with 18% of the vote. He reluctantly supported Giscard in the second round. He refused to give instructions to the RPR voters but said that he supported the incumbent president "in a private capacity", which was interpreted as almost ''de facto'' support of the [[French Socialist Party|Socialist Party]]'s (PS) candidate, [[François Mitterrand]], who was elected by a broad majority.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Mitterrand beats Giscard; Socialist victory reverses trend of 23 years in France |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/05/11/117115.html |access-date=2022-05-14 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=A1 |language=en |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Giscard has always blamed Chirac for his defeat. He was told by Mitterrand, before his death, that the latter had dined with Chirac before the election. Chirac told the Socialist candidate that he wanted to "get rid of Giscard". In his memoirs, Giscard wrote that between the two rounds, he phoned the RPR headquarters. He passed himself off, as a right-wing voter, by changing his voice. The RPR employee advised him "certainly do not vote Giscard!" After 1981, the relationship between the two men became tense, with Giscard, even though he had been in the same government coalition as Chirac, criticising Chirac's actions openly.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

After the May 1981 presidential election, the right also lost the subsequent [[1981 French legislative election|legislative election]] that year. However, as Giscard had been knocked out, Chirac appeared as the principal leader of the right-wing opposition. Due to his attacks against the economic policy of the Socialist government, he gradually aligned himself with the prevailing [[Economic liberalism|economically liberal]] opinion, even though it did not correspond with Gaullist doctrine. While the far-right National Front grew, taking advantage of the [[proportional representation]] electoral system which had been introduced for the [[1986 French legislative election|1986 legislative elections]], he signed an electoral pact with the Giscardian (and more or less Christian Democratic) party [[Union for French Democracy]] (UDF).{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

=== Prime Minister under Mitterrand: 1986–1988 ===

[[File:President Ronald Reagan, President Jacques Chirac, Nancy Reagan and Bernadette Chirac.jpg|thumb|President [[Ronald Reagan]], Jacques Chirac, [[Nancy Reagan]] and [[Bernadette Chirac]], ([[White House]], 31 Mars 1987)]]

When the RPR/UDF right-wing coalition won a slight majority in the National Assembly in the [[1986 French legislative election|1986 election]], Mitterrand (PS) appointed Chirac prime minister (though many in Mitterrand's inner circle lobbied him to choose [[Jacques Chaban-Delmas]] instead). This unprecedented power-sharing arrangement, known as [[cohabitation (government)|cohabitation]], gave Chirac the lead in domestic affairs. However, it is generally conceded that Mitterrand used the areas granted to the President of the Republic, or "reserved domains" of the Presidency, Defence and Foreign Affairs, to belittle his prime minister.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Chirac's cabinet [[privatization|sold many public companies]], renewing the [[liberalisation]] initiated under [[Laurent Fabius]]'s Socialist government of 1984–1986, and abolished the [[solidarity tax on wealth]] (ISF), a symbolic tax on those with high-value assets introduced by Mitterrand's government. Elsewhere, the plan for university reform (plan [[Alain Devaquet|Devaquet]]) caused a crisis in 1986 when a student called [[Death of Malik Oussekine|Malik Oussekine]] was killed by the police, leading to massive demonstrations and the proposal's withdrawal. It has been said during other student crises that this event strongly affected Jacques Chirac, who was afterwards careful about possible [[police violence]] during such demonstrations (e.g., maybe explaining part of the decision to "promulgate without applying" the [[First Employment Contract]] (CPE) after [[2006 labour protests in France|large student demonstrations]] against it).<ref>{{Cite news|date=2006-03-31|title=Jacques Chirac promulgue la loi sur le CPE, mais repousse son application|language=fr|work=Le Monde|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2006/03/31/jacques-chirac-promulgue-la-loi-sur-le-cpe-mais-repousse-son-application_756840_3224.html|access-date=2021-07-30|archive-date=30 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730200103/https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2006/03/31/jacques-chirac-promulgue-la-loi-sur-le-cpe-mais-repousse-son-application_756840_3224.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Visite de Jacques Chirac au stand des Ecrivains paysans au Parc Expositions de Paris (Salon de l'Agriculture) (1980s).jpg|thumb|Chirac (centre) during his second term as prime minister]]

One of his first acts concerning foreign policy was to call back [[Jacques Foccart]] (1913–1997), who had been de Gaulle's and his successors' leading counsellor for African matters, called by journalist [[Stephen Smith (journalist)|Stephen Smith]] the "father of all "networks" on the continent, at the time [in 1986] aged 72."<ref name="Smith">"Naufrage de la [[Françafrique]] – Le président a poursuivi une politique privilégiant les hommes forts au pouvoir.", [[Stephen Smith (journalist)|Stephen Smith]] in ''L'Histoire'' n°313, October 2006 (special issue on Chirac), p.70 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Foccart, who had also co-founded the Gaullist [[Service d'Action Civique|SAC]] militia (dissolved by Mitterrand in 1982 after the [[Service d'Action Civique#The 1982 Auriol massacre and the dissolving of the SAC|Auriol massacre]]) along with [[Charles Pasqua]], and who was a key component of the {{lang|fr|[[Françafrique]]}} system, was again called to the [[Elysée Palace]] when Chirac won the 1995 presidential election. Furthermore, confronted by [[anti-colonialism|anti-colonialist movements]] in [[New Caledonia]], Prime Minister Chirac ordered a military intervention against the [[Ouvéa cave hostage taking|separatists in the Ouvéa cave]], leading to the deaths of 19 militants. He allegedly refused any alliance with [[Jean-Marie Le Pen]]'s [[National Ralley|National Front]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/24/1019441263037.html |title=Chirac labels 'racist' Le Pen as threat to nation's soul |work=The Age |location=Australia |date=25 April 2002 |access-date=20 April 2010 |first=Harry |last=de Quetteville |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510024312/http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/24/1019441263037.html |archive-date=10 May 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Crossing the desert: 1988–1995 ===
Chirac ran against Mitterrand for a second time in the [[1988 French presidential election|1988 election]]. He obtained 20 per cent of the vote in the first round but lost the second with only 46 per cent. He resigned from the cabinet and the right lost the [[1988 French legislative election|next legislative election]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Jacques Chirac obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/26/jacques-chirac-obituary |website=The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2020 |language=en |date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=14 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214144946/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/26/jacques-chirac-obituary |url-status=live }}</ref>

For the first time, his leadership over the RPR was challenged. [[Charles Pasqua]] and [[Philippe Séguin]] criticised his abandonment of Gaullist doctrines. On the right, a new generation of politicians, the "renovation men", accused Chirac and Giscard of being responsible for the electoral defeats. In 1992, convinced a candidate could not become president whilst advocating anti-European policies, he called for a "yes" vote in the referendum on the [[Maastricht Treaty]], against the opinion of Pasqua, Séguin and a majority of the RPR voters, who chose to vote "no".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Appleton |first1=Andrew |title=Maastricht and the French Party System: Domestic Implications of the Treaty Referendum |journal=French Politics and Society |year=1992 |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=1–18 |jstor=42844330 |issn=0882-1267}}</ref>

While he still was mayor of Paris (since 1977),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clarity |first1=James F. |last2=Tagliabue |first2=John |title=Jacques Chirac, Who Led France Envisioning European Unity, Is Dead at 86 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/obituaries/jacques-chirac-dead.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=24 March 2020 |date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=26 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926102008/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/obituaries/jacques-chirac-dead.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Chirac went to [[Abidjan]] ({{lang|fr|Côte d'Ivoire}}{{--)}} where he supported [[Félix Houphouët-Boigny|President Houphouët-Boigny]] (1960–1993), although the latter was being called a "thief" by the local population. Chirac then declared that [[multiparty democracy|multipartism]] was a "kind of luxury".<ref name="Smith"/>

Nevertheless, the right won the [[1993 French legislative election|1993 legislative election]]. Chirac announced that he did not want to come back as prime minister as his previous term had ended with his unsuccessful run for the presidency against Mitterrand who was still president at this point.

Chirac instead suggested the appointment of [[Edouard Balladur]], who had promised that he would not run for the presidency against Chirac in 1995. However, benefiting from positive polls, Balladur decided to be a presidential candidate, with the support of a majority of right-wing politicians. Balladur broke from Chirac along with a number of friends and allies, including Charles Pasqua, [[Nicolas Sarkozy]], etc., who supported his candidacy. A small group of {{lang|fr|fidels}} would remain with Chirac, including [[Alain Juppé]] and [[Jean-Louis Debré]]. When Nicolas Sarkozy became president in 2007, Juppé was one of the few {{lang|fr|chiraquiens}} to serve in François Fillon's government.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rotella |first1=Sebastian |last2=Sicakyuz |first2=Achrene |title=Sarkozy's team is small in size, wide in scope |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-19-fg-france19-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=24 March 2020 |date=19 May 2007 |archive-date=24 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200324155235/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-19-fg-france19-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>