Chirac: the farmers’ guardian

FRANCE has stood by its farmers, and by Ireland’s farmers too, time after time when the odds were against them in CAP reform talks. That is largely due to Jacques Chirac, president of France since 1995.

Since he became the country’s minister of agriculture and rural development in 1972, Chirac has been known as a champion of French farmers’ interests.

Thirty-four years later, it was Chirac who stood up to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, warning him that the EU could make no further concessions on agricultural trade in WTO talks.