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Jacques Chirac: Former French president dies at 86 | |
(32 minutes later) | |
Jacques Chirac, the former French president whose later years were blighted by corruption scandals, has died aged 86. | |
"President Jacques Chirac died this morning surrounded by his family, peacefully," his son-in-law told the French news agency AFP. | |
Mr Chirac served two terms as French president and took his country into the single European currency. | |
The French National Assembly observed a minute's silence in his memory. | |
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission and former Luxembourg premier, said he was "moved and devastated" to learn the news. | |
"Europe is not only losing a great statesman, but the president is losing a great friend," Mr Junker said in a statement. | |
Corruption conviction | |
Chirac was born in 1932, the son of a bank manager. He served as head of state from 1995 to 2007 - making him France's second longest serving post-war president after his Socialist predecessor Francois Mitterrand. His health steadily deteriorated after he stepped down until his death on Thursday. | |
Chirac also served as the French prime minister, but was beset by a series of corruption scandals. In 2011, he was convicted of diverting public funds while serving as the mayor of Paris. | |
Among his major domestic political reforms was a reduction of the presidential term of office from seven to five years. | |
He moved from anti-European Gaullism to championing a European Union constitution that was then rejected by French voters. | |
In 2003, he was as the focus of opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2005, he suffered a stroke, and in 2014, his wife Bernadette said he would no longer speak in public, noting he had memory trouble. |