World leaders pay respects to France’s Chirac

PARIS, France (AFP) — Dozens of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, were expected in Paris on Monday to pay their final respects to France’s late president Jacques Chirac as the country holds a national day of mourning for its charismatic former head of state.

Putin and other world leaders were to join President Emmanuel Macron for a church service in the French capital, a day after thousands of people queued to view the coffin.

Chirac’s death on Thursday aged 86 prompted a flood of tributes to a man whose high-profile political career spanned three decades capped by 12 years as president from 1995-2007.

But it also sparked questions about how much this consummate political operator actually achieved during a long spell in office and again threw the spotlight on a 2011 conviction for graft over his time as Paris mayor.

Nevertheless, a poll in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that the French consider him their best president of the modern era, alongside Charles de Gaulle, with his finest achievement seen as opposing the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Thousands lined up Sunday in a queue that wound around the Invalides memorial complex, braving rainy weather and the prospect of an hours-long wait, to glimpse Chirac’s coffin draped in a French flag.

The national day of mourning in France Monday will see a minute of silence observed in all public institutions and schools.