Chirac's stance on Iraq out in patchy legacy

Paris, Mar 12: For all his failings on the domestic front, Jacques Chirac will be fondly remembered in France as the president who stood up to Washington over Iraq.

Chirac said yesterday he would not seek re-election after 12 years in power which were marked by limited success over reforms at home that, at one point, made him the least popular president since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.

Yet his foreign policy record has acquired a different status, at least in France where President Chirac is praised for having defended national interests with determination.

''I would say that in the eyes of the French, and no doubt in the eyes of history, the verdict will be globally positive on foreign policy,'' said Dominique Moisi, senior counsellor to the French Institute of International Relations.

'' Mr Chirac failed in many fundamental things, except in foreign policy. And there he will remain the man who said 'no' to the war in Iraq.'' Almost four years after the US-led invasion, Iraq is gripped by sectarian violence that threatens to tear it apart.

''I told (President George W) Bush 36 times that he was committing a monumental error,'' President Chirac said in a recent book.

Critics say the President was less effective over other foreign policy issues and failed to appreciate how rapidly world affairs were changing.

''It was an ageing, softening and slightly archaic foreign policy. Archaic in Africa, without imagination or strength of will in Europe, and slightly ageing, stiff and rusty in the rest of the world,'' said Christophe Barbier, editor of weekly magazine l'Express.

''Iraq in 2003 makes it seem that it was wonderful. It's the tree that hides the forest.'' CONSTITUTION Mr Chirac's worst setback on the international stage came two years after his Iraq defiance when he called a referendum on the European constitution but failed to secure a ''yes'' vote, pushing the European Union into an institutional crisis.

''In general, Mr Chirac's European policy has been a disaster and unfortunately it was in a period when leadership was really needed,'' said Richard Whitman, a senior fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London.

The constitution debacle was a far cry from his confident entry on the world stage in 1995 when Mr Chirac pushed vociferously for an end to the Yugoslav civil war and contributed thousands of French troops to the NATO-led stabilisation force in Bosnia.

His presidency also began with a series of nuclear bomb tests in the south Pacific that outraged several countries in the region as well as environmentalist groups, and led many consumers to boycott French products such as wine.

He developed close friendships with many African leaders but failed to use his influence to press them hard on democratic reform and human rights, lingering problems in several former French colonies on the continent.

''He was the man of continuity,'' Moisi said. ''He did not innovate much. He followed what I would say is a classic line but one that was in line with the views of the French.'' Chirac sought to project the image of a powerful, independent France, continuing a tradition established by his political hero, Charles de Gaulle.

His defence of France's position on the world stage extended to the French language. He stormed out of an EU summit last year when the French head of a European business lobby addressed delegates in English rather than in his native tongue.

For all his undoubted commitment to foreign affairs, the Chirac era also exposed the limits of French authority.

He made a priority of trying to help Lebanon, a former French protectorate, following the murder in 2005 of his friend, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

However, he was powerless to prevent the war between Israel and Hezbollah and lost his sway over regional power Syria.

France's influence in Africa has waned and new EU members from the east look to Berlin rather than Paris for leadership.

None of the leading contenders for the presidential election have attacked Chirac's foreign policy record but whoever replaces him will present the world with a new image of France.

''The main thing is a change of generation. There's a certain Gaullist tradition that should end in two months,'' Moisi said.

Reuters