PARIS—President Jacques Chirac said on Sunday he would not seek re-election next month after 45 years in frontline politics and made a final appeal to French voters to shun extremism.
Chirac, 74, has served as head of state since 1995 and leaves behind a chequered record that consists as much of symbolic gestures as concrete reforms.
In a televised address, Chirac said he was proud of what he had achieved but he would have liked to have modernised France more rapidly.
"At the end of my mandate, the moment will have come for me to serve you otherwise. I will not seek your backing for a new mandate.
"Not for one minute have I ceased to serve this magnificent France. This France which I love as much as I love you," said the final survivor of a political generation that started out in the postwar governments of General Charles de Gaulle.
His decision to stand aside was widely expected and clears the way for a new generation of politicians who were born after World War Two.
All the three leading contenders to succeed Chirac–Nicolas Sarkozy of the ruling UMP party, Socialist Segolene Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou–are in their 50s and all have pledged to break with the politics of the past 25 years.
Chirac, a conservative like Sarkozy, said Sunday was not the moment to endorse any of the contenders but he made clear that he hoped voters would reject far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who finished second in the 2002 presidential election.
"Never compromise with extremism, racism, anti-semitism or the rejection of others. In our history, extremism has already nearly ruined us," he said.
Iraq
Chirac ended compulsory military service, played an important role in ending the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s and was the first president to acknowledge that France's World War Two Vichy regime had assisted in the Holocaust.
Le Pen said he had lost his worst enemy. "I think that Jacques Chirac will go down as the worst president in the history of France," Le Pen said. "It's a great joy."
Chirac will perhaps be best remembered outside France for his denunciation of U.S. policy in Iraq and his determination to maintain his country's leading role in international affairs.
He infuriated Washington with his vocal opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq and embodied the forces scornfully dismissed by former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as "Old Europe".
"President Bush wishes President Chirac all the best as he enters life after politics. The United States and France have been and will remain steadfast partners and allies," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
Chirac introduced few meaningful reforms and leaves behind a difficult legacy for his successor, with the French economy underachieving and social tensions simmering in deprived suburbs following widespread rioting in 2005.
That year he also suffered a major defeat when voters rejected the planned European constitution, pushing the European Union into crisis and weakening his international standing.
He referred to the setback on Sunday and said France must continue working for a united Europe.
"We cannot face up to the economic upheavals of the world alone. France must demand a powerful Europe. A political Europe," he said, criticising unbridled economic liberalism.
After building a power base in the Paris town hall, Chirac succeeded a dying Francois Mitterrand in 1995 and crushed far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to be re-elected in 2002.
His stance on Iraq won him many friends in the Arab world, but at home his career was dogged by allegations of corruption, which he always denied, dating from his 18 years as Paris mayor.
Charismatic and clever, Chirac was brilliant on the campaign trail but had a less certain touch in office. At one point he had the worst popularity ratings of any French president but his support has climbed of late as his retirement neared.
Feeds