Beyond the issue of the debates remains that of men

I am not at the time of the record, I am at the time of the action. "The sentence date July 14, but it is still valid, as evidenced by its recent move to the home of the homeless. Jacques Chirac will present Sunday the last wishes of its quinquennium to the French, but it does not begin the countdown. "He will be President until the end." "His mantra is"I'm working, I work, I work"", observed one of his advisers in the Elysee Palace.

The international calendar of the next few weeks, it is true, especially loaded, including the Conference on the end January Lebanon and the International Conference on the planned environment in Paris for 2 and 3 February. But the head of State will be not simply, and plans to launch a number of initiatives both on the outdoor stage on the domestic scene. Loved him concoct an agenda as dense as follows since the summer.

Paying activism

After a difficult year marked by the "no" to the referendum European (May 2005) and the difficulties encountered by Dominique de Villepin (including the PBS, February-March 2006), the President has been the summer a resurgence in popularity, due in particular to its management of the crisis at the Lebanon. Since then, he continued travel abroad (New York, Armenia, China), interventions in the media, which was so little friand (interviews in the "world", Europe 1, at the "Figaro") and the positions taken by national: he launched the reform of the social dialogue in the economic and social Council, multiplied the environmental statements, installed the High Council of science and technologycorrected some political statements including calling for the rules of the ECB and supported the policy of Prime Minister.

This activism has largely paid in the polls: Jacques Chirac ends the year with a rating of 42, a level he had reached since the war in Iraq. In the future, no question of slow. The President will no doubt open less than new building, but he intends to those begun in the term, add symbolic measures, such as the constitutionalization of the prohibition of the death penalty ("Les Echos" of 27 December), and especially influence the debates which will animate the election campaign. As early as Sunday, the head of State should record the fact that the country in a new political, pre-election time, and try to frame the debate by fixing the issues that it considers to be crucial for the country. While the exchanges engaged the candidates have until this carried on hexagonal topics, Jacques Chirac wants to return them to broader global issues. Better that the balance sheets, it is in action and in the definition of the view that the head of State will leave its trace, showing the consistency of its mandates, "and appear as a man of equilibria", as a close. Beyond the issue of the debates remains that of men. Jacques Chirac has decided to deliver his preferences and intentions until the first quarter early March, he said Nicolas Sarkozy. To unveil the latest possible is probably the only solution to not be buried politically before the hour.

Three-month silence

But the President can have other ambitions The assumption of a new nomination is very thin, not because its faithful themselves do not seem to believe. But it cannot be totally excluded, especially as relatives such as Dominique de Villepin and Jean-Louis Debré maintained the suspense in recent months. In any case this silence that Jacques Chirac will meet for another three months weigh on the beginning of campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, UMP electing its presidential candidate on 14 January.