A wink from the sky.
When Christian Jacob, accompanied by François Baroin, goes up the main avenue of the Montparnasse cemetery on Friday, the heavy rain suddenly stopped.
The boss of LR is heading towards the tomb of Jacques Chirac, accompanied by the most loyal of the former head of state, five LR neo-deputies and a dozen young Parisian republicans, for an “intimate” tribute to the former boss, the day before the first anniversary of his death.
Alongside Christian Jacob and François Baroin, the president of Yvelines Pierre Bedier, former deputies Philippe Briand, Frédéric de Saint-Sernin, Yves Censi, lawyer Francis Szpiner.
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.
PODCAST. Jacques Chirac and Alain Juppé, story of extraordinary loyalty in politics (Part 1)
They know that the next day, fans and nostalgic people of “Chichi” will come in large numbers to flower the grave, to place an apple there.
They wanted a moment of their own.
This clan of Chiracians, it was formed about thirty years ago, at the dawn of the 1990s. Also called the "Chirac babies", this light commando was ready to do anything to defend the leader, despite the headwinds.
The 1995 presidential campaign was "foundational" for them, remembers Frédéric de Saint-Sernin.
First given a large loser on the right against a favorite Edouard Balladur, few of them continue to close ranks around the mayor of Paris.
"Ready to die politically" for their president
They are rewarded for it.
Some return to the government or to the Elysée, others become its lookouts in the Assembly.
At the Palais Bourbon, precisely, the famous “group of ten” (Henri Cuq, Guy Drut, Didier Quentin, Max Dubernard, Bernard Accoyer, Renaud Muselier, Hervé Gaymard, Philippe Briand, Christian Jacob and François Baroin) is on the front line.
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“We were very effective between 1997 and 2002, to hold the group, to lead blows.
No gift was made to Jospin
(Editor's note: become Prime Minister of cohabitation)
", recalls François Baroin, affirming that the troop" was ready to die politically "for its president.
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They see him regularly, "give him the pulse of the country," says Didier Quentin.
“Chirac knew us by heart, we knew him by heart.
The silences between us were the most eloquent, ”recalls the former Olympic champion in the 110m hurdles, Guy Drut.
But the atmosphere between them is also conducive to joking.
“It was very rifle, but still fun.
They had crossed the desert together… ”smiles today Valérie Pécresse, patron saint of the Ile-de-France region and at the time“ little hand ”at the Elysée.
And Renaud Muselier to slip: “We were united like class friends”.
Or regiment.
Faithful Chiraquians came to meditate and lay a wreath of flowers on the tomb of the former President of the Republic. / LP / Aurélie Ladet
Years have passed and fates have sometimes taken different paths.
Some, like Baroin and Jacob, ended up supporting Sarkozy in 2016, but the Chirac babies have kept in the habit of seeing each other several times a year.
For years, during meals at the Questure of the Assembly (occupied by Cuq, then Briand, renowned for his talents as imitators of Chirac) then at one or the other.
Hunting parties in Ile-de-France or Camargue, at Muselier, too.
"We have always loved each other very much and we have remained very close," recognizes Saint-Sernin, for whom "companionship" is written in the DNA of chiraquism.
"What interested, Chirac, was the man"
A notion as vague as the ideological journey of the mentor is sinuous.
"It's a humanist approach to things", tries Christian Jacob.
“There is a Gaullist lineage, a humanism at the service of the country.
What interested, Chirac, it was the man ”, abounds François Baroin.
"The principles of Chiraquism are coming back to politics: his intuition on the complexity of the world, the fact of being above parties, the attachment to public order, to social dialogue, to an interest in what is not is not Paris… ”analyzes Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, who was for a long time his diplomatic“ sherpa ”.
VIDEO. Jacques Chirac: why the French love him so much
Thirteen years after Chirac's departure from the Elysee Palace and one year after his death, the blue hussars of Chiraquie are still pushing their positions.
With Christian Jacob, they conquered the party.
With François Baroin, they thought they could reconquer France.
But no one seems to believe that the mayor of Troyes can run for the next presidential election.
“If Baroin were to be a presidential candidate, slips the young secretary general of LR Aurélien Pradié, the Chiraquian vision of the world would continue.
But with the assumption that it is not, the question of the transmission of its political soul becomes more urgent.
"
When the ex-babies Chirac play plouf plouf
On September 1, several of the die-hards (Jacob, Baroin, Villepin, Muselier, Drut, Gourdault-Montagne) gathered in the town hall of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, around the new mayor Francis Szpiner.
The person concerned had just recovered the office of their mentor at the Town Hall.
A photo for posterity, published in Paris Match, around this large Louis XV table of varnished wood and gilding, which has become a political relic.
And above all a pretext for a drink with friends.
“We stayed three times!
Drut smiled.
To find out which of them would have the duty to stand for the presidential election to bring Chirac's values high, the guests played “splash”.
This time, no wink from the sky.
It was not Baroin who was appointed but Villepin… who had already left by then.
Umpteenth Chiraquian joke, or sign that "the Great", as they call him, remains irreplaceable.
PODCAST. Jacques Chirac and Alain Juppé, story of extraordinary loyalty in politics (Part 2)
