(26 Sep 2019) Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo paid tribute to the late Jacques Chirac from her Town Hall office where Chirac spent 18 years until 1995 when he was elected President.
Chirac, a two-term French president who was the first leader to acknowledge France's role in the Holocaust and defiantly opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, died on Thursday at age 86.
"I am deeply moved and saddened to learn President Jacques Chirac has left us. He was an outstanding statesman, of the kind who leave a mark on the world's history, uncompromisingly, through their humanism," Hidalgo said, adding he "will forever be our mayor.
Chirac's son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux told The Associated Press that Chirac died "peacefully, among his loved ones."
He did not give a cause of death, though Chirac had had repeated health problems since leaving office in 2007.
His death was announced to lawmakers sitting in France's National Assembly, and members held a minute of silence.
Mourners brought flowers and police set up barricades around his Paris residence, as French people, and politicians of all stripes, looked past Chirac's flaws to share grief and fond memories of his 12-year presidency and decades in politics.
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