Chirac urges French to stay united in final speech

Jacques Chirac urged his compatriots to stay united and proud of the nation he led for 12 years in his final presidential appeal tonight.

"Always stay united," Chirac said in a brief televised address, before the 74-year-old turns over the French presidency to fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy tomorrow.

"A nation is a family. This link that unites us is our most precious asset" he said, sitting in front of French and EU flags.

He said France should be a nation of equal opportunity and an engine of European integration. Both appeals recalled low points of his tenure: the 2005 riots that laid bare deep-rooted discrimination against France’s immigrants, and the French rejection of the EU constitution that Chirac had championed.

He expressed "pride in a duty fulfilled," but did not list any presidential accomplishments, and his statement lacked the eloquence and passion that has marked many of his speeches.

"I know that the new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will endeavour to lead our nation forward on the paths of the future," Chirac said of the president-elect, a protégé-turned-rival who was elected earlier this month on pledges to halt the economic stagnation and social tensions that marred Chirac’s tenure.

Chirac often shone brighter on the global stage than at home, but he made no reference in his parting speech to his dream of a 'multi-polar world' less dominated by the US, or of his steadfast opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a defining moment of his presidency.

Chirac said he would turn his post-presidential attention to "dialogue among cultures and sustainable development".

He is expected to create a foundation in the autumn that would capitalise on his international reputation after more than a decade as a leading diplomatic fixture, similar to that of former US President Bill Clinton. Aides say the Chirac foundation will focus particularly on Africa.

Chirac sought to bring environmental issues into the spotlight, though critics say he had more words than action on the subject.

He often stressed cultural understanding over exporting Western values, a stance that Sarkozy distanced himself from in an election-night speech in which he said France would stand beside those oppressed by fundamentalism.

France’s relations with Africa are likely to be less close and more pragmatic with the departure of Chirac, who nurtured ties with former French colonies in Africa, and was criticised for his links with authoritarian African leaders. Sarkozy has few of those connections.

Stepping down from the presidency, Chirac will be ending some four decades in politics.

Chirac founded the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic party, today transformed into the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, that Sarkozy headed before being elected president.

The outgoing president built up the mainstream right into a powerful political machine. His ambitious search for funds for his party is at the heart of corruption allegations that implicated him, but never touched him while he had presidential immunity.

He could be summoned for questioning in investigations into illegal party financing as soon as mid-June, judicial officials say.

A former prime minister and long-time ally, Alain Juppe, was questioned today in a probe linked to Chirac’s time as mayor of Paris from 1977/95.

Chirac said his goodbye to Europe on a visit to Berlin on May 3, and Sarkozy makes his first foreign trip to Berlin immediately after inauguration tomorrow afternoon.

Chirac famously misjudged French voters by staging a referendum on the European constitution. The French and Dutch rejections of the treaty have stalled European integration efforts since and Sarkozy seems keen to revive them with a more streamlined document.

After leaving the Elysee Palace, Chirac and his wife, Bernadette, were to settle temporarily in a deluxe apartment on Paris’ Left Bank on loan from the family of murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a friend of Chirac’s.

He will receive about £4,000 a month in retirement pay as a former president, in addition to retirement pay as a former Paris mayor and for other senior posts he has held.

The only other president to issue a televised farewell to the nation was Valery Giscard d’Estaing, on May 19 1981, before turning over power to Socialist President Francois Mitterrand.

With a much remembered final "au revoir," Giscard stood, made an exit and left an empty chair in the spotlight.