Via Yahoo:
Former French President Jacques Chirac, a major force in French politics who opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, died in Paris on Thursday at the age of 86.
A seasoned politician, Chirac’s career included two presidential terms, two stints as prime minister and nearly two decades as mayor of Paris.
Charming, statuesque and a consummate political animal, Chirac was a presence on the French political arena for more than four decades. But he is best known internationally for his final term at the Élysée presidential palace, a five-year period that proved extraordinary from start to finish.
Chirac is probably best remembered in France for his 2002 presidential bid, when the centre-right politician made it past the first round despite corruption allegations to face National Front (FN) candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the run-off following the latter’s shock advance.
French voters and politicians who were expecting Socialist incumbent, Lionel Jospin, to make it through to the second round, rallied around the 69-year-old Chirac in a bid to prevent Le Pen from clinching the presidency. Chirac won the runoff with more than 82% of the vote, a tally that critics never failed to underscore was achieved by millions of Frenchmen and women holding their noses and voting for the less offensive candidate. “Pas de choix” (“No choice”) was the refrain as the French sniffed about having to choose between voting for a “crook” or voting for a fascist.
Chirac was barely a year into his second presidential term when he was faced with the biggest diplomatic challenge of his career as then US president George W. Bush attempted to build a “coalition of the willing” against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.