Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 (making him the only person to hold the position of Prime Minister twice under the Fifth Republic), and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris and the École nationale d'administration (ENA), Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He subsequently occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and finally President of the French Republic.
In the 1970s he advocated a French welfare model, in the 1980s he was briefly supportive of liberal economics, and in the 1990s and 2000s he embraced a soft-left, statist, instinctively anti-capitalist politics. In foreign policy, he was known for anti-Americanism and allying with leaders such as Vladimir Putin. He was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). After less statist policy when he was Prime minister (1986–1988), he changed his method. Then, his economic policies, based on ... »
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