FORMER French president Jacques Chirac died today aged 86.

The long-time mayor of Paris, later prime minister and finally president of the country from 1995-2007 was a rightwinger who presided over a number of key privatisations when premier under president Francois Mitterand from 1986.

These included that of France Telecom, where endemic bullying in a bid to shed jobs following privatisation is now the subject of court proceedings because of hundreds of staff suicides.

Other state companies he handed to the privateers included the Paribas bank and the General Electric Company.

In Britain however he is better remembered for his refusal to join George W Bush and Tony Blair’s criminal invasion of Iraq, which left a million dead and gave birth to the Isis terror group.

Chirac’s security council veto was crucial in stopping Mr Bush getting UN approval for the war.

The US government renamed French fries at its staff canteens “freedom fries” by way of revenge.

He was also the first French president to admit to the culpability of the French state in the Holocaust, with French police rounding up Jews and handing them to the nazis to be murdered.

And he was a key proponent of the EU project, railing at French voters for “shooting yourself in the foot” and being “stupid” by rejecting the EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.

Most of the tenets of the constitution were imposed on member states anyway under the guise of the Lisbon Treaty after Ireland had joined France in rejecting it. Ireland rejected that too, but was made to hold another referendum to reverse its decision.