At home, he was better at campaigning than governing. The candidate who had vowed to mend the "social fracture" bequeathed worse public finances and deeper social divisions. His disillusioned people lost faith both in the European ideal (voting against a draft constitution in 2005) and largely in their own governing class—not least, in him. He won a second presidential term by a fluke landslide: a first-round upset meant that his opponent was a far-right extremist, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
在法国，他更擅长竞选而不是执政。 这位发誓要修补“社会裂痕”的候选人留下了更糟糕的公共财政和更深层次的社会分裂。他的幻灭的人民不仅对欧洲理想失去了信心(2005年投票反对宪法草案)，而且很大程度上对他们自己的统治阶级失去了信心——尤其是对他。希拉克的第二次总统竞选侥幸地获得了一场大胜：首轮失利意味着他的对手让-玛丽·勒庞是极右翼极端分子。
His one-time reformist zeal mutated into a fear of upsetting the status quo. By the end of his ill-starred second term, Mr Chirac was the Fifth Republic's most unpopular president (though François Hollande later beat that dismal record). It was easy to see why. The country was suffering from what he himself admitted was a "profound malaise", playing a humiliating second fiddle to a resurgent Germany in European politics. His nadir came when he lay low for a week while rioting engulfed the big cities in 2005. He was prone to petulance and rudeness in official meetings, bore mammoth grudges, and took some spectacularly bad gambles, notably calling a parliamentary election in 1997 which the opposition Socialists won easily.
他曾经的改革热情变成了打破现状的恐惧。在他不幸的第二任期结束时，希拉克成为第五共和国最不受欢迎的总统(尽管弗朗索瓦·奥朗德后来打破了这一糟糕记录)。原因很简单。这个国家正遭受着他自己所承认的“严重的弊病”，在欧洲政坛上，德国的复兴让法国颜面扫地。2005年，当骚乱席卷各大城市时，他潜伏了一个星期，陷到了人生最低谷。希拉克在正式会议上脾气暴躁，举止粗鲁，而且满是怨言，希拉克还进行了一些非常糟糕的赌博，尤其是在1997年举行议会选举时，反对党社会党轻松获胜。
Much of his energy was devoted to dodging impertinent questions, of which there were many. In his 18-year stint running Paris he bloated the city payroll (particularly with jobs for party workers). He threw huge, lavish parties for his supporters, while cultural notables and other influential friends gained chic municipal apartments. Hence the caustic slogan from the 2002 election, "Vote for the crook, not the fascist". The stink rose with him. Even the most world-weary could not shrug away the stories of bundles of cash, foreign bank account sand murky quid pro quos.
他的很多精力都用来躲避很多无礼的问题。在他管理巴黎的18年里，希拉克增加了市政人员的工资(特别是政党的工人)。他为自己的支持者举办了盛大奢华的派对，而文化名人和其他有影响力的朋友则住进了时髦的市政公寓。然后就有了2002年的刻薄的竞选口号“给骗子投票，而不是法西斯”。他的坏名声越来越大。即使是最厌世的人，也无法对成捆的现金、外国银行账户和暗箱操作的交易不闻不问。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
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