After presenting himself as «pacifist» against the war in Iraq, Jacques Chirac shows mechanisms that make the French nuclear might known again. In the same way in which before the attack against Iraq, George W. Bush made emphasis on the national security of Americans, Chirac insisted on the necessary defence of the «vital interests» of France. Vital interests that, as recognized by the head of state, are above all «guarantees of the strategic energy supplies and the defence of allied countries», in a very unpopular and not diplomatic word: oil.
_This demonstration of nuclear might was followed immediately by a correction made by the spokesman of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new nuclear doctrine of France «is not aimed at any country in particular and is not related to any specific situation.» He added that the use of the military power «still depends on the conditions of the initial strategic scenario,» that is, «it still is a deterrence doctrine.»
This is a useful correction made by a French diplomat who knows very well that France, alone, made 1, 112 underground nuclear tests near the Mururoa atoll, in the South Pacific, between 1975 and 1988. The French «pacifism» of the war against Iraq was nothing but another facet of the power of a France that wants to be present, at all costs, in the international arena, a characteristic sign of a President that, in view of the coming elections, does not want to leave his post.

Source
La Padania (Italie)
Journal de la "Ligue du Nord", le parti d’extrême droite sécessioniste italien.

«Chirac, dal «pacifismo» alla grandeur nucleare», by Umberto Bossi, La Padania, January 21, 2006.