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Jacques Chirac has brought the curtain down on a 12-year stint as French President, bequeathing a legacy of meagre achievement and a country stuck in a quagmire of doubt.
In a televised address yesterday from the Elysee Palace, Chirac exuded the avuncular charm and verbal flourishes that have
driven one of the world's longest political careers.
The 74-year-old head of state said he would hand over to Nicolas Sarkozy "with pride in duty accomplished and with great faith in the future of our country".
"Thanks to you, thanks to your commitment, we have modernised our country, enabling it to meet the profound changes of our times, and we have done so, loyal to our identity and holding high the values of the Republic," he said.
But he also made a veiled reference to the tensions within France - many of which surfaced or worsened during his spell as President and may amplify further under the hard-driving Sarkozy.
"Always stay united and together ... in spite of different ideas, different points of view," Chirac pleaded. "United, we have all the advantages, all the strength, all the talent to make our mark in this new world which is unfolding before our eyes."
Chirac heads into well-heeled retirement after having failed to block the rise of Sarkozy, 52, a former protege who became a bitter rival.
In his farewell address, Chirac was at pains to express good wishes and stress his confidence in Sarkozy "as he takes up the most demanding and most beautiful mission there is".
During a political career that stretches back to the 1950s, Chirac served twice as Prime Minister, 18 years as Mayor of Paris and twice as President. In 1995, he succeeded the Socialist Francois Mitterrand and in 2002 trounced far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, earning a record 82 per cent of the turnout. His sincere hatred of Le Pen's xenophobia and his principled opposition to the US-led war on Iraq brought Chirac's popularity to an apogee in 2003.
But this brief success failed to mask tactical misteps, policy failures and compromise on almost every other issue, leading many analysts to conclude that Chirac craved power but had no idea how to wield it.
On domestic policy, after toying with Thatcherite reforms and then embracing left-wing welfarism, he leaves the French economy burdened with a massive debt and an unemployment rate that is among the worst in Europe. And - as he indirectly alluded to in his farewell speech - resentment simmers among its poor, badly integrated Arab and African minorities.
On foreign policy, Chirac's France is still viewed with hostility by Washington and has lost a lot of its clout in the expanded, 27-nation European Union.
At the start of Chirac's term, the French public was fervently supportive of European integration; today, the suspicion of Brussels and European enlargement runs deep. One of the great disasters of the Chirac presidency was the 2005 referendum in which the French public slapped down a grandiose "European constitution" of which he was the father.
Chirac plans to spend his retirement setting up a foundation, inspired by those set up by Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton, on protecting the environment, encouraging sustainable development and fostering cultural dialogue.
But Chirac may soon be cross-examined over financial scandals that occurred in the 1980s when he was Mayor of Paris. He enjoyed immunity from investigation during his time as President, but loses it when he becomes an ordinary citizen again.
Suspicions, though, are high that this indignity - or worse - will never be allowed to happen, and that Sarkozy will pass a law that will save Chirac being investigated.
