page_title: Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France
section_title: 2012 Olympics
hierarchical_section_title: Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France / 2012 Olympics
caption_attribution_description: President George W. Bush and French President Jacque Chirac address the media in the Rose Garden November 6, 2001, from www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/images/20011106-4.jpg
context_page_description: At age 69, Jacques Chirac faced his fourth campaign for the French Presidency in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one voter in five in the first round of voting of the presidential elections of April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin on the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of the law-and-order, anti-immigrant National Front, and won re-election by a landslide; most parties outside the National Front had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared.
  "We must reject extremism in the name of the honour of France, in the name of the unity of our own nation," Chirac said before the presidential election. "I call on all French to massively vote for republican ideals against the extreme right."
context_section_description: Chirac became the subject of controversy the day before the International Olympic Committee was due to pick a host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Chirac made comments stating that "the only worse food than British food is Finnish" and "the only thing the British have done for Europe's agriculture is mad cow disease". Not only were Chirac's comments considered unsportsmanlike where the normal etiquette is not to criticize rival cities, there was also the presence of two Finnish members on the International Olympic Committee who would vote in the final ballot. Out of the competing candidate cities, the bid was widely acknowledged as the front runner but Paris's narrow loss to arch-rival London led many to believe that Chirac's comments were at fault. It seems that the French public laid the blame of the failure on President Chirac, and not on the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, whose popularity had in fact risen according to polls.
  Even longtime Chirac supporters had lost their faith. Jean-Louis Debré, president of the National Assembly and a faithful Chirac supporter, declared "I'm not sure that Jacques Chirac succeeded in his presidency. I'd at least like that he succeeds in his exit." 
  According to a July 2005 poll, 32% judge Jacques Chirac favorably and 63% unfavorably.
  It is unclear whether Jacques Chirac will run for a third mandate in 2007 and, should he not run or should he fail in a re-election bid, whether he risks prosecution and jail time for the various fraudulent schemes he has been named in. While he is currently immune from prosecution as a president, prescription (i.e. the statute of limitations) does not apply. His authority was seriously weakened by the October–November 2005 Paris suburb riots in which hundreds of cars and numerous warehouses were set alight throughout France by thousands of alienated North African immigrants who complain of widespread discrimination and unemployment. The riots were triggered by the accidental deaths of two North African immigrants in a poor Paris suburb named Clichy-sous-Bois who were rumoured to be fleeing from police. Chirac later acknowledged that France had not done enough to integrate its Muslim North African citizens into French society or combat racism.
  One issue seen of increasing importance with respect to a possible 2007 re-election bid is Jacques Chirac's age and health. Chirac has often been described to be extremely resilient and hard-working, and to have conserved a legendary appetite; before 2005, he had never had major health problems throughout his long political career. He used to be a heavy smoker but had given up many years ago. Nevertheless, it has become apparent that he is also careful of hiding signs that may betray declining health.  In October 2003, there was an intense debate about French leaders' tradition of keeping secret their medical problems (for example Mitterrand's cancer was hidden for 14 years) : Jacques Chirac has gone slightly deaf in one ear, and a former Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot had revealed that a small hearing aid had been fitted discreetly into Mr Chirac's left ear. This debate leading to accusations of secrecy and speculation emerged once again in September 2005 when Chirac following a suspected stroke ( which provoked "slight impairment in his field of vision"). making it increasingly unlikely that he will run for a third term in 2007 and stoking the undeclared succession battle between Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy (Villepin was appointed to serve in Chirac's place in the United Nations 2005 World Summit in New York City).
  On 19 January 2006, Chirac said that France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism.
  On March 17, 2006, Chirac, was involved in a controversy over a youth employment law after protests in Paris against the measure ended in violence and 187 arrests.
  Unions and student groups 
caption: Jacques Chirac with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America.
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