French elections: Old boss Jacques Chirac backs Nicolas Sarkozy rival

FRENCH former president Jacques Chirac, switching political camps, plans to vote for Socialist front-runner Francois Hollande in the upcoming presidential election.

“It’s no state secret,” Jean-Luc Barre – who helped Chirac pen his memoirs – said yesterday. “He hasn’t just been telling me. He says it to absolutely everyone he sees.”

Viewed fondly in his old age by much of the nation, Chirac, 79, infuriated his conservative successor Nicolas Sarkozy last June when he said – in what was regarded as a mischievous comment – that he would vote for Hollande. Speculation on how he will vote has intensified ahead of the two-round ballot on 22 April and 6 May.

Chirac ruled France for 12 years until 2007 and remains highly popular in contrast to Sarkozy, who is tipped in all opinion polls to lose the run-off to Hollande.

Asked what he felt about Chirac plumping for an adversary, Sarkozy told state radio yesterday that people should not try to exploit the position of an ageing man whose mental health is the subject of speculation.

“The best way of respecting Jacques Chirac and the difficulties he has is to not try and make him talk, so that he is not exploited in one direction or the other by those around him,” Sarkozy said.