"He was a chief knowing how to be chief": on the tomb of Chirac, the homage of Jacob, Baroin and the others

A ray of sunshine breaks through after torrential rains.

"We're going to see Pépère's grave!"

», Smiles, in a perfect imitation of Jacques Chirac, Philippe Briand.

A few meters from the last home of the former President of the Republic in the Montparnasse cemetery, the former deputy exchanges some good memories with his friend Frédéric de Saint-Sernin.

"Do you remember when I called his secretariat pretending to be Prime Minister Balladur?"

Chirac was bent.

" Bursts of laughter.

Then, in a more serious tone, Frédéric de Saint-Sernin slips that it took him "three or four months" before he had the strength to come and meditate here.

Now he comes every other Sunday.

If he made the trip this Friday, September 25, it is because the very Chiraquien boss of the Republicans (LR) Christian Jacob made an appointment with the most faithful of the former head of state, this Friday, September 25, on the eve of the first anniversary of his death, for an “intimate” tribute to the former boss, which the Parisian-Today in France was able to attend.

Five LR neo-deputies who did not know the Corrézien and a dozen Young Parisian Republicans were invited.

For the secretary general of LR Aurélien Pradié, 34, this is the “symbol of the transmission of a political soul”.

"He coached, accompanied, supported us"

Here they are all going up the main avenue of the cemetery.

“Ah, family!

»Breathes Philippe Briand when he sees them.

Alongside Christian Jacob: the mayor of Troyes François Baroin, the president of the departmental council of Yvelines Pierre Bedier, the lawyer Francis Szpiner, the former deputy Yves Censi.

These "young Chiraquians of 30 years ago, who have become the old Chiraquians of today", as Christian Jacob says, lay a wreath of flowers on the sober tomb in silence.

The grave of Jacques Chirac, who died on September 26, 2019, in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris (15th century) ./ LP / Aurélie Ladet  

“We all owe him a lot.

He coached, accompanied and supported us, ”said the president of LR in a short speech.

A little apart, five former officials of the protection service of the RRP and the UMP, one of whom even knew the muscular Civic Action Service (SAC) of General de Gaulle, listen religiously.

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"

While the right is looking for an incarnation for the next presidential election, is the tutelary figure of Jacques Chirac missing?

"We must not be in nostalgia, but it is true that its ability to bring the French together, in an increasingly divisive climate, is lacking," answers Christian Jacob.

“He was a chef who knew how to lead.

It's missing, but it's missing everywhere, ”adds Pierre Bedier, who is discovering the tomb for the first time.

For Aurélien Pradié, 34, Chiracism, a “relationship with humans”, is now “companionship between two generations”, that of Chirac's fellow travelers, and his own.

“If Baroin had been a presidential candidate, he slips, we thought that this vision of the world would continue.

But with the hypothesis now that it is not, the question of the transmission of its political soul becomes more urgent.

The rain begins to fall again, the last Chiraquians take refuge in a bar.

In a last nod to his missing mentor, Christian Jacob places an order: “draft beers, of course!

".