French President Jacques Chirac last week announced his departure from the world stage after a 40-year political career. In a televised address to the nation he told the French people that he will not be seeking a third presidential mandate and urged them to unite against extremism, poverty and unemployment, to embrace change and to support a social Europe.
Mr Chirac's speech was statesmanlike, perhaps a reflection of the fact that he has served as President of France for the past 12 years and has played a leading role in shaping policy at a European level.
Until fairly recently it was not clear whether Mr Chirac would seek re-election, as he failed to endorse his party's official presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, as his successor. Mr Chirac didn't even mention Mr Sarkozy in his televised speech to the nation. However, poor ratings in the opinion polls as well as a huge decline in support for him within his own UMP party, convinced the President that he was no longer capable of rallying both the right and the nation.
There is no doubt that Mr Chirac proved to be both a shrewd political operator and a strong defender of French national interests on the global and European scene, but objectively speaking I think it is fair to say that he has had a limited legacy. While he gained respect in France and elsewhere for some of his foreign policies, such as his opposition to the war in Iraq - where he was proved right - one cannot say that his domestic policies were particularly successful, especially when one considers that much needed structural reforms were often withdrawn in the face of public opposition and street protests.
Mr Chirac's long political career made him a pillar of the French political establishment. Nicknamed Le Bulldozer by President Georges Pompidou, his one-time political mentor, Mr Chirac was mayor of Paris for 18 years, Prime Minister twice and ran for President four times. He was elected President in 1995 and 2002.
Although his domestic policies were never particularly popular, he managed to be re-elected in 2002 with 82 per cent of the vote because his opponent in the second round was the far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who had eliminated the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin - Mr Chirac's then Prime Minister in a "cohabitation" government - in the first round.
Today, the three main presidential candidates, Mr Sarkozy, the Socialist candidate, Ségolene Royal, and the centrist candidate, Francois Bayrou, are all trying hard to distance themselves from the Chirac era, promising a new approach in a bid to halt France's economic decline and to reduce the high unemployment figures. Mr Sarkozy's attitude, of course, is the most significant, since he is the leader of Mr Chirac's party, and he understands that the President never really got to grips with France's economic problems.
Mr Chirac will be remembered for his very strong support of France's agricultural sector and there is no doubt that he has been very popular with French farmers. Despite a number of attempts to review European Union aid to the farming sector, which is a massive chunk of the EU budget, and which French farmers benefit greatly from, Mr Chirac more or less managed to keep the status quo.
However, besides a firm belief in heavy protectionism for farmers, it is quite difficult to really define what 'Chirac-ism' stands for. He cannot be described as an economic liberal and many analysts have labelled him a political opportunist. True, he is a Gaullist, which doesn't fit in neatly within the typical left-right European political divide, but his term of office was characterised by him changing course on a whole range of political and economic issues, such as labour market reforms and Turkey's membership of the EU, where he suddenly decided that French voters would decide in a referendum if Ankara should join the bloc.
President Chirac was very often led by public opinion instead of leading it. Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former Socialist Finance Minister who served in Mr Chirac's first term (in the cohabitation government) once said: "Chirac has more qualities to conquer power than to exercise it". Franz-Olivier Giesbert wrote in his book The Tragedy of the President: "There is a Chirac curse. A sort of incapacity to govern that leads him sooner or later to put the country against him".
Many observers believe that Mr Chirac wasted many opportunities during his 12 years in office, when he had ample time to implement the structural economic reforms that France so badly needs. The country still has a high unemployment rate, there are problems with integrating a large part of the immigrant community, significant labour market reform has not come about and the state still plays a significant role in the economy.
I am not saying that the Anglo-Saxon economic model should be applied to France - every country has its own particular set of circumstances and approaches to economic reform - but the fact remains that the French economy was not turned around under the Chirac presidency.
Neither am I saying that Mr Chirac did not attempt to introduce economic reform during his term of office. Soon after he was elected President in 1995 he embarked on a programme of reform, which was not popular with the electorate and which was badly sold to the public. So much so, that when Mr Chirac decided to dissolve Parliament in 1997 and call fresh parliamentary elections - one of his biggest political blunders - his government led by Prime Minister Alain Juppé lost its parliamentary majority. For the next five years Mr Chirac had to cohabit with a Socialist government led by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
Although he was re-elected in 2002 Mr Chirac's second term was not characterised by bold reform initiatives. Domestically he remained somewhat unpopular and the centre-right suffered a crushing defeat in regional elections in 2004. In May 2005 France voted No to Europe's constitutional treaty in a referendum called by Mr Chirac and soon after that France was ravaged by race riots. Both these events severely weakened the Chirac Presidency. In April 2006 the President decided to scrap a youth labour reform law, bowing to popular opposition that included violent street protests.
Not surprisingly President Chirac's highest approval rating was when he announced, in May 2003, that France would use its UN Security Council veto to block approval of a US-led invasion of Iraq. He was often at odds with the Bush administration, and many times warned about the dangers of US unilateralism. He definitely enjoyed closer ties with the Clinton administration.
In Europe Mr Chirac was regarded as an elder statesman, and as a veteran of European Union summits, he definitely pushed his weight around during meetings of the European Council. He was known to resort to outbursts on a number of occasions, such as when he accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of being rude during an exchange of opinions over the EU budget, and when he said the new EU member states from Central Europe were "ungrateful" when they had supported the US position on Iraq.
Mr Chirac now faces an uncertain future. Although in 2001 he was granted immunity from prosecution over party finance scandals when he was mayor of Paris, it was announced last week that he will be investigated over this matter when he steps down as President in May. So we have definitely not heard the last of Jacques Chirac.