{"id":232940,"date":"2019-09-29T22:39:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T02:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=232940"},"modified":"2019-09-29T22:39:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T02:39:02","slug":"mourners-say-goodbye-to-late-french-president-jacques-chirac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/29\/mourners-say-goodbye-to-late-french-president-jacques-chirac\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourners say goodbye to late French President Jacques Chirac"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Chirac smiles at the crowd outside \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace. (Photo By David Scull\/Wikimedia commons,Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2014 Thousands of mourners paid tribute Sunday to former French President Jacques Chirac, who died at 86.<\/p>\n

Chirac was lying in state Sunday afternoon inside the Invalides monument in Paris, where France honours its heroes, after he died Thursday.<\/p>\n

People were holding a moment of silence in front of the casket draped in the French flag under a large, smiling picture of Chirac.<\/p>\n

A booklet prepared by Chirac’s family was handed to those who came to the Invalides. Titled \u201cChirac in his own words\u201d, it includes some quotes evoking key moments of Chirac’s presidency, like when he defiantly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying: \u201cWar is always the worst of all solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chirac was also the first French president to acknowledge France’s role in the Holocaust in 1995.<\/p>\n

Remy Clovel came from Paris’ western suburb of
\nSaint-Germain-en-Laye to pay his respects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have Jewish origins, so it’s important for us that he (Chirac) acknowledged the responsibility of the French state in the persecution of Jews during the Second World War,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nicole Pats from Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris, has recalled Chirac as \u201ca simple man.\u201d \u201cHe watched you, smiled at you and he loved you. We had the impression (that we belonged) to his family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yolaine Mongole, native from La Reunion island, said she \u201calways admired the man. He was, popular, warm and accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial service is planned Monday in Paris. It will be attended by President Emmanuel Macron and about 30 former or current heads of states and government, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

A private funeral will take place later that day at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.<\/p>\n

Chirac served as Paris mayor, a lawmaker, prime minister and France’s president from 1995 to 2007.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 Thousands of mourners paid tribute Sunday to former French President Jacques Chirac, who died at 86. Chirac was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":232941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232942,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232940\/revisions\/232942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}