World leaders pay final tribute to France’s Chirac

Dozens of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, yesterday paid their final respects to ex-president Jacques Chirac as France held a national day of mourning for the popular former head of state.

Putin and other world leaders joined President Emmanuel Macron for a funeral service at Saint-Sulpice church in Paris, a day after 7,000 people queued to view Chirac’s coffin at the Invalides monument.

Chirac’s death on Thursday aged 86 prompted a flood of tributes to the centre-right politician whose career spanned four decades, capped by 12 years as president from 1995 to 2007.

But it also sparked questions about how much the consummate political operator actually achieved and again threw the spotlight on a 2011 conviction for graft over his time as Paris mayor.

His coffin, draped in a French flag, was carried into the church by his former bodyguards, to applause from around 1,000 onlookers lining the square outside.

Other world leaders attending included Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as well as former US president Bill Clinton.

A minute of silence was to be observed in all public institutions and schools yesterday afternoon.

Analysts have attributed the outpouring of emotion over the death to the warmth of a politician who was more comfortable working the crowd at the annual Paris agricultural fair than giving speeches in the gilded surroundings of the Elysee Palace.

One of Chirac’s most significant steps on the international stage was his opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent belated condolences, saying Chirac “worked tirelessly to uphold the values and ideals that we share with France.”

Putin worked intensely with the Chirac in the first phase of his own presidency and the pair were notably united in their opposition to the Iraq invasion.