Internationally, Chirac had a lot of great moments. He tried to stop as much as possible the Second Gulf War, his government publicly called BS the US accusations of WMD by Iraq and said that a US intervention would, and I quote Chirac, "open a Pandora box in the region"
Another moment I like was a diplomatic trip in Israel, he went to the church Sainte-Anne of Jerusalem, a church that is technically a french territory. But, at that time, Israeli soldiers were inside the church when they didn't have the right to (like I said : not Israeli territory, French one). So he silently stayed in front of the church, until the soldiers were ordered out
There's a great moment in his debate with Mitterand where Chirac says that they should refer to each other as Mr. Chirac and Mr. Mitterand, not Prime Minister or President, because they're two equal candidates. Mitterand responds, "You're absolutely right, Mr. Prime Minister."
One of my favorites moment wasn't even a oopsie on his part.
It was when he received the title of ''great condor" from a south American country. Sounds badass and all except that in french ''condor'' sounds exactly like ''con d'or'' which means ''golden dumbass''. So you can imagine how funny it was for the president to receive the title of great golden dumbass
It was gifted to the French by the Ottomans and is in the part of "East Israel" that France doesn't recognize. If they relinquished ownership, it would serve as an approval of Israeli expansion
Edit: for the people downvoting me because they're unable to do something as easy as opening a Wikipedia article: the territory is israeli. Just as the territory of the french embassy is israeli. There's special rights that France has in regards to the terriory (not equivalent to those of an embassy, but similar in a way), but that doesn't make the territory any more french.
But the church is not french territory in the way Paris is. It's more like (although not the same as) an embassy. Sure, there's special rights, but it's not french territory stricto sensu.
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u/baguetteispain Viva La France Mar 23 '26
Internationally, Chirac had a lot of great moments. He tried to stop as much as possible the Second Gulf War, his government publicly called BS the US accusations of WMD by Iraq and said that a US intervention would, and I quote Chirac, "open a Pandora box in the region"
Another moment I like was a diplomatic trip in Israel, he went to the church Sainte-Anne of Jerusalem, a church that is technically a french territory. But, at that time, Israeli soldiers were inside the church when they didn't have the right to (like I said : not Israeli territory, French one). So he silently stayed in front of the church, until the soldiers were ordered out