Today’s ceremony brings together the Chirac family, close friends, and several political figures who have come to pay tribute to this strong-willed woman. Widowed since 2019, Bernadette Chirac had chosen to gradually withdraw from public life while maintaining her involvement in community organizations. Her death marks the passing of a political generation that profoundly shaped France in recent decades.
Beyond the ceremonial role of first lady, Chirac became a political presence in her own right, closely watched for her influence around her husband, who died in 2019, and for the dry discipline with which she handled his reputation as a womanizer, a subject she later addressed with unusual frankness.
