Almotamar.net - Jacques Chirac said farewell to an uncertain and divided France last night, which his critics accused him of tipping into decline. But after 40 years in politics, the president once described as a "bulldozer" and "killer" of rivals left France in suspense as to whether he would eventually give his support to his party opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, who hopes to take over his job.
In a televised address, Mr Chirac, 74, who boasts one of the longest continuous political careers in Europe - twice president, twice prime minister and 18 years as mayor of Paris - said he was proud of what he had achieved but would have liked to have modernised France more rapidly.
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"At the end of my mandate, the moment will have come for me to serve you otherwise. I will not seek your backing for a new mandate," he said in a sombre, 10-minute speech where he laid out some of the major issues facing France. Voters are preparing to replace him with a president from a new generation in six weeks. All the three main contenders to succeed him - Mr Sarkozy of the ruling UMP party, Socialist Ségolène Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou - are in their 50s and all have pledged to break with the politics of the past 25 years.
Styling himself as an affable rogue, Mr Chirac for decades charmed the public with his handshaking, patting of cows and shaking of dogs' paws on his tours round France - a man of the people who was able to eat five lunches in one afternoon on the election trail through kitchens.
Nicknamed the "weathervane" for his ability to shift as it suited him - he went from championing state control in the 1970s to Ronald Reagan's free-market liberalism in the 1980s, from nuclear testing to eco-champion, eurosceptic to euro-defender. He was dogged by the sleaze scandals from his days at Paris city hall, which saw some of his closest associates convicted of corruption. He claimed immunity as president, but even after he leaves the Élysée palace, he is unlikely ever to see serious sanctions.
Mr Chirac's popularity rose over his opposition to the war in Iraq and he will be remembered for his quest to reconcile France with its history, the first French head of state to recognise the Vichy regime's collaboration in the Holocaust and to apologise to the Jewish people.
But over the past year, the country has seen a series of brutal appraisals of what critics term his dithering, broken promises and wasted 12 years as president. When he came to power in 1995, after two failed attempts, he promised to heal the "social fracture", crippling unemployment and inequality, but many suggest he is leaving France worse off, with social unrest on impoverished housing estates and a large public debt.
Mr Chirac is most criticised for failing to steward change in France and for calling a referendum on the EU constitution in 2005, then failing to sell the idea to the electorate, who voted no.
Highs and lows
2003 Opinion polls showed that approval for Jacques Chirac's anti- war in Iraq policy reached 90%
2002 Mr Chirac agreed common agricultural policy payments with Germany, securing his popularity
1995 Mr Chirac apologised for Vichy collaboration in the deportation of Jews
1997 In May his austerity programme cost the centre-right its majority
2005 France voted no to the EU constitution. In November he was accused of weak leadership following riots over high unemployment