It's a 56-year-old thread that has spanned history.
A thread that electorally links the name of Chirac to Corrèze, from the election of Jacques in 1965 as municipal councilor of Sainte-Féréole until the presence of Bernadette, general councilor from 1979 to 2015 where she had again been re-elected as deputy. .
It has now been a month since Claude Chirac, daughter of the former presidential couple, campaigned to take up the torch.
At 58, she decided to embark on her very first election, running for a seat on the departmental council, on June 20 and 27.
"She has the genes of the father and the mother, she is made for that"
A door-to-door “proximity” campaign, like this Thursday between the Bel air district and the hospital, in the north of Brive-la-Gaillarde. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a lunch break. After having worked alongside her father for a long time, it is now her name that she is trying to make known. "The Chirac family has an unwavering bond here", reminds us Julien Bounie, his partner for the departmental, always by his side in the field. It is not systematically recognized - “It depends, and at the same time we arrive masked! », Bounie slips - but the expressions of sympathy often flow, all the same. "Marks of gratitude to his parents, we say to him:
Oh, your father did that for me
", still lists his partner.
Read also Jacques Chirac and his family: two daughters, two destinies
"She fights every day, many people thought that she would not really campaign", praises Claude Nougein, Senator LR from Corrèze.
Understand: we might have thought that she would be content to surf on his name.
"She has the genes of the father and the mother, she is made for that", abounds Frédéric Soulier, the mayor (LR) of Brive, who accompanied her in the field.
We recently crossed paths with her at the inauguration of an esplanade bearing her father's name, in Panazol (Haute-Vienne) a week ago, grateful that paternal memory is being honored.
Less delighted, however, to find herself in the line of sight of cameras and microphones eager to be able to tell about her new commitment, with a dynastic feel.
“This is my family land, these are my roots and I am very happy there,” she blurted out despite everything.
Solicited on numerous occasions, it declines any request from the national media.
“This commitment is Corrèze, local, she explains to us by text.
This is my principle.
"" She has a strong character, "laughs Christian Jacob.
The idea was suggested to him shortly before his father's death.
The idea of offering him to take over from his mother - elected here in March 1979 - was born in the heads of several local pundits. To the newspaper La Vie Corrézienne, the one who is not politically inscribed has confided to have "never thought about it": "I consider myself as a soldier, not as a leader". "We wanted to continue the adventure of Chirac in Corrèze", says Pascal Coste, president (LR) of the department. He would have spoken to him about it a little before the death of Jacques Chirac, in September 2019, and then again a little after.
"She thought about it, she wondered if it could be useful," continues Senator Nougein. In July 2020, it is to Christian Jacob that she confides on this project, in his office on rue Vaugirard, at the headquarters of the Republicans. "If Claude Chirac had wanted a legislative investiture, in the Senate, she would have had it," says Jacob, a loyal Chiraquian. But now, it will be the canton of "Brive 2". A canton where the school was located, the director of which was his great-grandfather, Jacques' grandfather.
If locally the name of Chirac finds a particular echo, all also hope that she will be able - if she is elected - in turn to bring the interests of the department to Paris. "She is not fooled, she knows that we are counting on her, that she can open doors for Corrèze", recognizes Pascal Coste. A hyphen, like her father before her, who was both deputy for Corrèze and mayor of Paris. A history of Chirac.
