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PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac is expected to confirm on Sunday he will not seek reelection, bringing the curtain down on more than 40 years of frontline politics.
He leaves behind a legacy of strong, symbolic gestures but meagre concrete results. Chirac is due to make a televised address to the nation to say he will not seek a record third mandate at next month's presidential elections, officials and commentators say.
Campaigning for the April and May vote has been raging for months with conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal and centrist Francois Bayrou locked in a tight three-way race.
Chirac, 74, has clung on to the notion that he might run again so as not to become a lameduck president, but a string of setbacks and a bout of ill health have left little doubt in most people's minds that he would not try to hold on to power.
The president is likely to defend his record on Sunday, pointing to the way he has protected French interests on the world stage, stood up to the United States over the Iraq war and promoted tolerance at home.
But critics say he has little meaningful economic or social reform to show for his time in charge.
"Overall ... it's seen as a very weak presidency, especially in the second term," said Daniela Schwarzer, an expert on France at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
During his reign, Chirac ended compulsory military service, stood firm against the increasingly popular far right and was the first president to acknowledge that France's Vichy regime had assisted the Nazis in the World War Two Holocaust.
He also played an important role in ending the civil war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and won widespread popularity in the Arab world for the way he stood up US President George. W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He also suffered some spectacular reverses -- notably in 2005 when the French voted in a referendum to reject the European Union constitution, diminishing his domestic standing and weakening his position as a major international player.
His career was marked by policy flip-flops, which won him the nickname the Chameleon Bonaparte or Girouette (weathervane).
At one point, he fiercely opposed the EU, then supported it; he used to champion US-style liberal economics, then promoted protectionism.
Others nicknamed him Houdini because of his ability to find a way out of difficult situations, while President Georges Pompidou referred to him simply as the "bulldozer" for his ability to get things done.
Chirac has yet to throw his weight behind his conservative heir apparent, Sarkozy, and is unlikely to do so on Sunday.
Relations between the two men have been strained ever since Sarkozy deserted Chirac's side in 1995 to support an alternative rightist candidate who was ultimately defeated.
- REUTERS
