The French public on Sunday began bidding a final farewell to late former president Jacques Chirac, fondly remembered as a charismatic giant of domestic and international politics despite a mixed legacy.
Chirac’s death on Thursday aged 86 prompted a flood of tributes to a man whose high-profile political career spanned three decades capped by 12 years as president from 1995-2007.
But it also sparked questions about how much this consummate political operator had actually achieved during a long spell in office and again threw the spotlight on a 2011 conviction for graft over his time as Paris mayor.
Nevertheless, a poll in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that the French consider him to have been their best president of the modern era, alongside Charles de Gaulle.
From midday GMT on Sunday, Chirac’s coffin will lie in state at the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides cathedral at the Invalides memorial complex in central Paris for the French public to come and pay their last respects.
Long queues were already forming of people wanting to pay homage to Chirac.
– ‘Don’t have that today’ –
The tribute, which will take place in the presence of his family, is related to “the strong relationship that Jacques Chirac had with the French,” his son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux told AFP.
The French presidency had since Thursday night thrown open the doors of the Elysee Palace for anyone wanting to write in condolence books. By the time the doors shut on Saturday evening, 5,000 people had done so.
“A page is turning,” said Christine, 60, as she signed the book. “He had a human side that we don’t have in politics today,” added Thibaud, 23.