Jacques Chirac Born 29th November 1932 in Paris, he graduated from from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and Harvard University Summer School, U.S.A before studying at the National School of Administration (ENA) (1957-1959). He is then appointed Auditor at the Cour des comptes (national accounting office), then in 1962 he joined the staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. He won his first election as District Councillor, in Sainte-Féréole (Corrèze) in March1967 and he was elected parliamentary representative of the Corrèze department in 1968. Minister for Social Affairs, with Employment problems in the Pompidou government, then Minister of Economy and Finance in the Pompidou, Couve de Murville and Chaban-Delmas governments In 1972, he was Minister of State to the Prime Minister, in charge of relations with Parliament in the Chaban-Delmas government. In1972- 1973, he was Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (in the Messmer government) before being appointed Minister of the Interior. Became Prime Minister in 1974, until 1976. In 1978, he was elected Mayor of Paris. Prime Minister for a second time (20th March 1986-10th May 1988) under a socialist presidency, He lost his first Presidential election by a narrow margin (against President Mitterand). On Match 1989, reelected mayor of Paris. In 1994 , he resigned the Chairmanship of the RPR party which is divided on his candidature at the coming presidential election that he won in the 2nd round of voting with 15,770,249 votes (52.64% of votes cast) as against 14,187,963 votes for Lionel Jospin on 15th May 1995. | |||
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