On the occasion of the release of his book “Mon Chirac.
A singular friendship ”, which appears this Thursday, September 10 by Tallandier editions, Alain Juppé returns through a few pictures of forty years of companionship with the former President of the Republic, who died almost a year ago, on September 26, 2019. L tale of a "singular friendship", as the former mayor of Bordeaux sums it up on the cover of his book.
Which is also a story of the right.
The comments on the photos are taken from his book and from the interview that the former Prime Minister gave to the Parisian - Today in France.
January 28, 1983: in the footsteps of Chirac in Paris
In the countryside in the 18th arrondissement of Paris./REBOURS/SIPA
“After a failed attempt at the legislative elections of 1978 in the Landes, I set out to conquer the 18th century in Paris, during the municipal elections of 1983. I was a total stranger, so I had put my hoe on the poster three times. election so that my head can be remembered!
Jacques Chirac's support was very valuable.
I was able to measure the political animal that he was, in his approach, his physical presence which occupied all the space because of his size and the energy he gave off.
Physical presence matters a lot in politics.
From his contact, I learned everything.
To shake hands, to look each interlocutor in the eye.
I myself took a liking to it.
It was a magnificent political fight, with a good result: elected in the first round with 54% of the votes while I faced a list led by Lionel Jospin, Claude Estier, Bertrand Delanoë and Daniel Vaillant!
It needs to be done !
That year, Jacques Chirac achieved the grand slam, with the twenty arrondissements won.
An exploit that he will repeat in 1989. "
May 7, 1995: swept away by the crowd ...
At the Hôtel de Ville in Paris after the announcement of the results. / RINDOFF-FIZET / BESTIMAGE
“I experienced a little more than joy, happiness, the evening Jacques Chirac won the presidential election, the third in which he participated.
The fight of his life… and for many ours.
I like this photo taken on avenue d'Iéna (Paris XVI), where a human mass of known and unknown faces awaits him to celebrate his victory.
The crowd is so compact that it is difficult to cross the avenue.
I'm behind the president
(here, in this shot, at the Town Hall, to his right, while to his left, is the very young François Baroin, Editor's note)
, a little as if I were his guard of the body, with a smirk of near pain on his face.
My wife Isabelle, who was four months pregnant, had been pushed into the crowd.
She stretched out a little in a break room at your office, and the president came over to kiss her.
We then went home.
I was not at the big Concorde party, which I watched on television.
"
June 18, 1996: the hell of Matignon, really?
Commemorative ceremony of the appeal of June 18, 1940 at Mont Valérien (Hauts-de-Seine) ./ CHESNOT / SIPA
“We often talk about the hell of Matignon, but I don't remember it.
Hell?
No.
No more than paradise for that matter.
It's ... Matignon, what.
The workload is overwhelming, the job is physical […], but I enjoyed this life in constant tension, and the feeling of acting for the common good.
Are we really cut off from realities, locked in our ivory tower?
It is a received idea […].
We are connected to countless sensors that send you information, often firsthand.
During these two years at Matignon, from 1995 to 1997, the president's support was permanent, unwavering.
Maybe too much, by the way.
Perhaps he should have warned me more about my reformist enthusiasm.
The 1995 strikes were not caused by the reform of health insurance, which I made, but by a simple allusion to the reform of the special pension schemes.
He told me:
don't talk about it today
… The ordeal of the
great strikes
was hard, and I needed his support.
If I glance over the history of the Fifth Republic, I find few examples of President / Prime Minister teams which, until the end, pulled the State tank in harmony.
"
November 4, 1985: at the table with Chirac!
In Paris, in the 18th arrondissement./WITT/SIPA
"Jacques Chirac used to telephone my mother, for whom Chirac was the president and a little more still: Madame Juppé, don't you think that Alain should put on weight a little?
Ah, Mr. Chairman, as I like to hear you say.
He is not eating enough!
You have to tell him to eat!
In recent years, he no longer had the legendary appetite we knew him.
"
November 20, 2009: after the Elysée, nostalgia ...
A visit to Bordeaux (Gironde) ./ ABACA / Patrick Bernard
“In 2007, the legislative election following the presidential election was not favorable to me. I kept my word and resigned from my post as Minister. Jacques Chirac had left the Elysée, I felt like an orphan. This image makes me a little sad, as it was slowly fading. I was mayor of Bordeaux, he was undoubtedly at a loss to be no longer in public action. His steps, on the quays of the Garonne, were hesitant. But the popular affection people had for her was still there. I am, for example, very popular with Africans. Why ? Because I am Chirac's man. Not that he only did wonders there, but when he went there he said to them,
I love you
, and the people believed him, because it was true. I remember that president, he had created a pataquès at the Louvre museum by requiring that a room exhibit African masks. The Conservatives almost fainted. What, next to the Mona Lisa and the Delacroixes? ! In this photo, we are in 2009. He still received a lot in his office in the rue de Lille (Paris VIIe). Would you like a little gin? he said to me. At 10 am
(laughs
)! I miss him… "