As an American, I always wanted to know-what is Jeaque (sp) Chirac like? Is he a good leader? Is he bad? Does he downright suck?
Well that would depend on your politics. :) Jacques Chirac conservative and so implements a conservative agenda, which I happen to disagree with. I much prefered Mitterrand, but I suppose we could have ended up with worse than Chirac...
WorldCompanyInc
18-09-2004, 16:05
As an American, I always wanted to know-what is Jeaque (sp) Chirac like? Is he a good leader? Is he bad? Does he downright suck?
He is a very charismatic blunderer.
I mean, his Presidential career has been riddled with stupid decisions ( rightist policies put aside, let's just mention : Mururuoa nuclear testings, Calling for anticipated parliament elections which his party subsequently lost big time, Agreeing to name Francis Mer at the Ministere de L'economie, And Rosinne Bachelot at the Ministere de l'environnement, etc etc etc )
Plus, he is threatened on all sides by corruption lawsuits concerning his friends and party, or his activity as the former Mayor of Paris , lawsuits that somehow all point in a way or another in his direction .
However, he is widely seen as a "friendly" and "nice" guy : I mean, there's no 2 like him, the way he
you know, the kind of unexplainable quality that makes people vote for him despite the fact he has a contradictory and unpractical, if any, political platform .
One point for him though is that this "charism" is not only perceived by Frenchmen, but he is also rather popular abroad (well, outside of the US/UK anyway :p) which always a plus for a head of state .
A second is his stand on the Iraqi crisis, which, for whatever reasons he took it, was correct .
Cheese varieties
18-09-2004, 19:03
we could have ended up with worse than Chirac...
True, wasn't the alternative Jean-Marie Le Pen.