PARIS — Setting the stage for a suspenseful presidential race, French President Jacques Chirac announced Sunday that he would not run for a third term after 12 years in office and 40 years in politics.
The announcement by Chirac, 74, was not a surprise. His popularity has sunk as the result of economic and political malaise, urban riots, corruption scandals and electoral setbacks. But the decision cast into sharp relief his longtime dominance of politics here as president, prime minister and mayor of Paris, and his roller-coaster relationship with voters.
"I will not seek your votes for a new term," Chirac said in a nationally televised address. " ... [But] I will continue to press the struggles that are all of ours, the struggles of my whole life, for justice, for progress, for peace, for the greatness of France."
Chirac's move came after months of refusing to rule out a bid and flirting with fielding his own intraparty challenger to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, of the ruling center-right movement.
Other candidates include Francois Bayrou, 55, a centrist preaching pragmatism and unity. Initially considered a longshot, he has unexpectedly pulled even in polls with Segolene Royal, 53, of the opposition Socialists, and they are not far behind Sarkozy.
Far-right maverick Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78, retains enough support to influence the outcome five years after he upset the Socialists, then lost the runoff to Chirac. But this week, he still must finish obtaining the 500 signatures from elected officials necessary to validate a presidential candidacy in France.
The candidates have been campaigning hard in the run-up to the official start of the race Thursday. The first-round vote will be April 22.
In his speech Sunday night, Chirac said he would discuss his choice of a candidate soon. He spent most of the address expressing remarkable emotion for a political warhorse who has cultivated the lofty, regal image of an elder statesman among Western leaders.
"You have not for an instant ceased to inhabit my heart and my spirit," he said. "I have not for a minute stopped serving this magnificent France, this France that I love as much as I love you."
Chirac cited achievements including a drop in crime, lower unemployment and laws to protect France's secular tradition, the disabled and the elderly. He did not specifically cite the policy that pushed him to the height of his popularity and will endure in history books: his leadership of international opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
