Former French president Jacques Chirac settles old scores in his memoirs released this week but avoids any mention of the corruption scandal for which he has been ordered to stand trial.
"Every Step Should Be a Goal" goes on sale in bookstores Thursday, less than a week after a judge said the 76-year-old statesman should be sent to the dock for diverting public money during his time as Paris mayor.
The 500-page book is the first of a two-volume autobiography tracing his childhood years in Correze, deep in rural France, and his extraordinary rise to become a pivotal figure of the Fifth Republic.
Excerpts of the autobiography were published in Le Parisien daily and other French media just as Chirac was set to make a round of interviews to promote the book and face questions about the corruption charges.
His years as president from 1995 to 2007 will be the focus of the second volume, but the first book is already shaping up to become a bestseller with some 230,000 copies up for sale.
A secretive, enigmatic leader whose career spanned more than three decades, Chirac takes a few sharp swipes at fellow politicians in his memoirs and makes some surprising revelations about his personal life.
The ex-president expresses disappointment with his future successor Nicolas Sarkozy, then a "nervous, overzealous and eager for action" minister who backed rival Edouard Balladur for the presidency in 1995.
But his most bitter remarks target former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, whom he served as prime minister at the age of 42.
Chirac describes him as arrogant and vindictive, especially after his 1981 defeat, and a man with whom "communication has always been difficult".
"One day, Giscard assured me that he had thrown rancour to the river," he wrote, referring to Giscard's defeat for which he blamed Chirac.
"But that day, the river bed must have been dry because his rancour remained persistent and inexhaustible."
Of his wife and confidante Bernadette, he writes that her "opinions can at times be blunt, some times too blunt in my view, especially when they concern me."
"But her views, her advice and her criticism have always enlightened me. Her intuition, her capacity to listen and her political acumen often lead her to be right ahead of everyone else."
One of the most surprising excerpts deals with Chirac's first sexual experience in Morocco during a night of revelry, with the ex-president recalling that the next morning, "I was a new man."
Turning to Sarkozy, Chirac made clear his successor at the Elysee had betrayed him when he chose to back Balladur but the full story of their relationship is expected to be in the second volume.
"This first defection did not leave me indifferent. Nicolas Sarkozy is in my view much more than simply an aide," he wrote, noting that the young Sarkozy even back then was a gifted communicator.
The memoirs make no mention of the corruption case that could see Chirac face up to 10 years in jail for handing out lucrative bogus jobs to political allies between 1983 and 1998.
Despite his legal problems, Chirac has made a comeback in public opinion with many French voters feeling nostalgia for his avuncular style, one that stands in sharp contrast with Sarkozy's whirlwind approach.
An Ifop poll this month rated Chirac as France's most popular politician, with a 76 percent approval rating.
Source: AFP Global Edition
