Viewpoint: Chirac the Great?

As French President Jacques Chirac faces his first meetings with US counterpart George W Bush since the rift caused by the Iraq war, writer and film-maker Nick Fraser considers his place in French history.

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Feted in France as a superhero and national saviour, Jacques Chirac is reviled in Britain and America as a third-rate crook.

Chirac has been reborn as a world-class "grand homme"

But these are today's emotions. As I've discovered by trailing the president of France for more than a year, there are many Jacques Chiracs, and nothing, least of all his reputation, lasts very long.

During last year's elections, Mr Chirac's star was dimmed by scandals.

He was viewed by all but his fanatical supporters as a tainted has-been.

In the first round of the elections he scored only 20% - the lowest-ever vote for an incumbent.

But his socialist opponent had performed even worse - and Mr Chirac found himself pitted against the racist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the run-off. He had become the champion of French democracy.

Francophobia

From the beginning of the allied effort to dislodge Saddam Hussein, Mr Chirac declared himself opposed to war.

I cannot fail to be charmed by Jacques Chirac - even his gaffes have a reassuring Gallic style

In Britain and America, his stance was attributed to a long-standing admiration for Saddam Hussein.

It was suggested that France, having done business with the Iraqi regime, stood to gain from opposing a war.

Particularly in the newspapers of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp either side of the Atlantic, francophobia was served up as the plat du jour.

Bashing Jacques became a popular journalistic pastime. In the US a boycott of French goods was even mooted.

But Mr Chirac appears to have been motivated by dislike of war.

He was also opposed - like the rest of the anti-American French elite - to the notion of a "unilateral" superpower America. Not just France's seven million Muslims, but the whole of the country stood behind him.

So Mr Chirac resolved to use everything at his disposal, most of all France's seat on the UN Security council, to block America and Britain.

Unbecoming hauteur

Chirac was reckless in failing to placate Britain

One can accept this motivation without applauding the way it was implemented.

The speeches of Mr Chirac and his charismatic Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin were arrogant in tone, stressing the morality of peace-making over the need to get rid of a tyrant.

When the French president failed to secure a majority of European states behind his position, he rounded on his opponents - Eastern European states about to join the EU - with unbecoming hauteur.

And while seeking to obtain German support, he was also reckless in failing to placate Britain.

Mr Chirac's campaign against America culminated in his famous TV appearance, on 10 March, to veto a UN resolution leading to war "in any circumstances".

This caused the British and Americans to desist from any further efforts to raise support for their policy.

It was the curtain-raiser to war.

'Grand Homme'

But it now appears that Mr Chirac had approached the allies with an offer to withdraw opposition if no attempt was made to secure a resolution at the UN.

Mr Chirac tastes remarkably like the vintage article - rich, boasting an overwhelming bouquet, but with a distinctly dubious aftertaste

In France, Mr Chirac is not seen as the man who caused conflict. Instead he is applauded, even by those who dismissed him a year ago.

Following hot on the heels of the old, tainted "superliar", a new, reborn world-class "Grand Homme" Chirac has emerged.

Efforts have even been made to nominate him for the Nobel peace prize.

Being myself half-French, I cannot fail to be charmed by Jacques Chirac - even his gaffes have a reassuring Gallic style.

He is like the puppet version of himself in the French Spitting Image - someone always trying to amount to something great, and never able to bring it off.

It is possible that he acted out of misplaced loyalty to Saddam Hussein, or venal motives - but I feel that this is journalistic cliche.

Pomposity

More serious is the impression he gave of not caring much one way or another whether the world was rid of Saddam.

Chirac speaks a language French people find appealing

This was an attitude shared by many, but perhaps not suitable for the president of France, a country whose founding modern myth remains the fall of the Bastille.

Then there remains the question of French arrogance.

But complaining about the hauteur of a French politician is about as futile as lamenting the fact that the Seine flows into the sea.

Pompous, faux-grandiloquent, Mr Chirac speaks a language that French people still find appealing.

De Gaulle's successor?

His disregard for the views of erstwhile allies was also shared overwhelmingly by French opinion. So was his distaste for George W Bush.

No one should be surprised that his policy was so successful.

Is there a new Chirac? Is he indeed a worthy successor of de Gaulle, a great Frenchman?

On these questions one may profess, modestly, some doubt.

If Mr Chirac is indeed "nouveau", he tastes remarkably like the vintage article - rich, boasting an overwhelming bouquet, but with a distinctly dubious aftertaste.

Jacques Chirac: Are you a Great Frenchman? will be shown on BBC Four on Sunday 1 June at 2030 BST