On the occasion of Wednesday’s release of the film “Bernadette” with Catherine Deneuve, Erwan L’Eléouet, author of the book “Bernadette Chirac, the secrets of a conquest”, returns for franceinfo on the political decisions for which the ex- First lady tried to influence Jacques Chirac.
More than a First Lady, Bernadette Chirac became a shadow advisor to Jacques Chirac, often ignored by her husband, until the evening of the first round of the 2002 presidential election, when she had predicted the qualification of Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the film “Bernadette”, which is released on Wednesday October 4, director Léa Domenach returns to the political sense of Bernadette Chirac, played by Catherine Deneuve.
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When Bernadette Chirac entered politics by becoming general councilor of Corrèze in 1979, “she’s not enchanted, it’s an order from Jacques Chirac”recalls Erwan L’Eléouet, author of the book “Bernadette Chirac, the secrets of a conquest” (Fayard editions). “Unhealthily shy” initially, the future First Lady will take advantage of these 36 years of mandate in Corrèze to give herself “political legitimacy”, until “make your mark at the Élysée”.
She opposes the dissolution of the National Assembly
In 1997, the dissolution of the National Assembly, decided by Jacques Chirac, led to an episode of cohabitation with Lionel Jospin, “Bernadette Chirac talks about stupidity. She thought the dissolution was a strategic mistake.”says Erwan L’Eléouet.
In this file, Bernadette Chirac identifies Dominique de Villepin, then secretary general of the Élysée, as one of the defendants of this dissolution which will cause the loss of the right-wing majority in the Assembly. “She considers him an enemy because she nicknames him Nero, after the cruel despot.” The day after the results, “she greets Dominique de Villepin with a ‘Hello Monsieur Strategist’, in the corridors of the Élysée. She regrets not having been sufficiently heard by her husband and his advisors.”
In 1997, Jacques Chirac had just started his first mandate, two years earlier. “The change has not completely taken place, so she is not yet the woman of influence she will be later with the Yellow Pieces”underlines Erwan L’Eléouet.
She sees the FN coming in the second round in 2002
The surprise presence of the National Front in the second round of the 2002 presidential election is a founding marker of Bernadette Chirac’s influence. “She said it loud and clear, notes Erwan L’Eléouet. The evening of the first round, April 21, 2002, was the first time that Jacques Chirac praised his wife’s political intuition in front of his advisors, saying that she was one of the few to have it. warning about the possible presence of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round. Jacques Chirac is not a specialist in marital congratulations…”
“Things changed in 2002, even her husband’s outlook: he ended up recognizing a political meaning in it.”
Erwan L’Éléouet, author of “Bernadette Chirac – The secrets of a conquest”at franceinfo
Because, for the first time, a First Lady was elected locally, as general councilor of Corrèze, between 1979 and 2015. Bernadette Chirac then explains that she felt, on the ground, the wind turning in favor of the National Front. “She is in direct contact with the demands of the French. There is also the idea that she travels across France for the yellow coins, so she hears a lot of discontent. EShe spoke to members of the staff of the Élysée, to the police officers or the financier, to the gardeners. She got an idea of the discontent by all these reactions and all the discussions she could have.”
She reconciles Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy
In 1995, the Chirac couple felt betrayed by Nicolas Sarkozy, who chose to support Édouard Balladur for the first round of the presidential election. “Bernadette Chirac is at the same time the woman who, in 1995, said ‘I would kill him with my own hands if necessary’, because she is ulcerated, a very, very strong anger. But it’s is the one who, unlike Jacques Chirac, will throw resentment into the river”, indicates Erwan L’Eléouet.
The First Lady is working to push Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2007 presidential election. “There are even secret meetings organized in an apartment in Versailles, initially she wants to hide this support from her husband, analyzes the author of the book “Bernadette Chirac, the secrets of a conquest”, released in paperback by Editions Pluriel. She is a pragmatist, she considers that Nicolas Sarkozy can help his political family win.”
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This support shown very early for Nicolas Sarkozy would also be a political calculation. “She also thinks about the life after. The life after is the idea of dismissing the judges in the affair of fictitious jobs at the Paris town hall. Nicolas Sarkozy may be the man who can keeping the judges away is the feeling she can have. But he is also the man with whom she will negotiate the reimbursement of the costs of the fictitious jobs.”
Because, according to Erwan L’Eléouet, the Paris town hall had withdrawn its complaint after the Chirac couple’s commitment to reimburse the costs linked to these fictitious jobs. “Who bears the majority of the costs linked to these fictitious jobs? It is UMP. It is Bernadette Chirac who is in charge of this file, there is strategy and political pragmatism.”
She encourages Jacques Chirac to separate from a close advisor
When Jacques Chirac signed the “Cochin appeal” in December 1978, he was hospitalized at Cochin hospital, injured after a car accident in Corrèze. He received a visit from two very influential advisors, Marie-France Garaud and Pierre Juillet, who encouraged him to sign this anti-European text and against the policy of the president of the time, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, of which Jacques Chirac had was Prime Minister from 1974 to 1976.
“Bernadette Chirac judges at that time that these two advisors could be harmful to her husband, explains Erwan L’Eléouet. It is even said that Jacques Chirac later regretted having signed this appeal.” After this episode, Bernadette Chirac pushed her husband to oust his advisor, Marie-France Garaud, after the failure of the RPR in the European elections in 1979.
Marie-France Garaud had nevertheless been “an ally of choice” for Bernadette Chirac. According to Erwan L’Eléouet, the future advisor had in fact succeeded in convincing a journalist from Le Figaro to abandon a budding relationship with Jacques Chirac. “The one who had been an ally in 1976 becomes an enemy, two years latersummarizes the author. Bernadette Chirac made it known in an interview with Elle magazine, with this sentence that was both cruel and said everything about her influence: ‘We can never be wary enough of good women’. It’s also a way of saying ‘You didn’t see me coming, you certainly took me for a fool, but I got you’.” For Erwan L’Eléouet, at that time, Bernadette Chirac “signs the sidelining of Marie-France Garaud.”