Here is a well written and well summarised article about the Chirac presidency.
The Economist : France's president - The man who deserves a red card
In short, Chirac failed on almost all the line. During his term, unemployment remained high, the public deficit rose by 10% (not as bad as Japan or the US during the same period though), many unfulfilled promises and lack of guts to reform the system...
He failed to promote the European Constitution in his own country, despite being a strong supporter of it. It can even be argued that his support for the Constitution led to the French to rethink their position and doubt its qualities, since Chirac's reputation was so low.
His few achievements are relatively minor. He somewhat reformed the health and pension system (until a more suitable reform). The rest is mainly words : he was the first French president to recognise the French state's involvment in the Jewish Holocaust; he created a slavery memorial day; he inaugurated the world's largest museum for non-European arts; he condemned racism and anti-semitism; he even excluded racist from the Bastille Day prisoners' pardon... Many words against racism, which ironically have boosted the less immigration-friendly opposition.
It is also during his hypocritical rule that French Muslim have shown the strongest signs of misadapatation and even revolted three times : for the ban on veils in public institutions, for the cartoons of Mohammed, and once "just for the fun of burning cars" (underlying deep socio-economical problems and lack of cultural integration).
His lenient tolerance and lack of action to tackle the problem is certainly what cost him the most popularity points. He was the only president to have such a bad rating at his second term election that extreme-rightist and near neo-nazi J-M Le Pen almost beat him ! Now, Sarkozy is heading the opinion polls for next year's presidential election because of his tougher stance on immigration and Muslim integration. As the Economist has it "If both Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy stood for the right in the first round next year, said a Paris-Match poll last week, Mr Chirac would score just 8%?\and Mr Le Pen 12%.".
The Economist : France's president - The man who deserves a red card
In short, Chirac failed on almost all the line. During his term, unemployment remained high, the public deficit rose by 10% (not as bad as Japan or the US during the same period though), many unfulfilled promises and lack of guts to reform the system...
He failed to promote the European Constitution in his own country, despite being a strong supporter of it. It can even be argued that his support for the Constitution led to the French to rethink their position and doubt its qualities, since Chirac's reputation was so low.
His few achievements are relatively minor. He somewhat reformed the health and pension system (until a more suitable reform). The rest is mainly words : he was the first French president to recognise the French state's involvment in the Jewish Holocaust; he created a slavery memorial day; he inaugurated the world's largest museum for non-European arts; he condemned racism and anti-semitism; he even excluded racist from the Bastille Day prisoners' pardon... Many words against racism, which ironically have boosted the less immigration-friendly opposition.
It is also during his hypocritical rule that French Muslim have shown the strongest signs of misadapatation and even revolted three times : for the ban on veils in public institutions, for the cartoons of Mohammed, and once "just for the fun of burning cars" (underlying deep socio-economical problems and lack of cultural integration).
His lenient tolerance and lack of action to tackle the problem is certainly what cost him the most popularity points. He was the only president to have such a bad rating at his second term election that extreme-rightist and near neo-nazi J-M Le Pen almost beat him ! Now, Sarkozy is heading the opinion polls for next year's presidential election because of his tougher stance on immigration and Muslim integration. As the Economist has it "If both Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy stood for the right in the first round next year, said a Paris-Match poll last week, Mr Chirac would score just 8%?\and Mr Le Pen 12%.".