[FRANCE24] "The world needs more dictators like Hugo Chavez," Minister of Overseas France Victorin Lurel said on Saturday after attending the late Venezuelan leader's funeral.Lurel described Chavez as a cross between Charles de Gaulle and reforming left-winger Léon Blum, who served three times as French prime minister.
"De Gaulle because he profoundly changed his country's institutions, and Blum because he fought relentlessly against injustice," he told RTL radio.
"I'll be criticised for saying this, but the world needs more dictators like Hugo Chavez, if it's a dictator that he actually was. He showed a strong respect for human rights."
Lurel described Chavez's funeral service as "moving", adding that "while not everyone can agree with all his policies and actions, the people here are very proud of what he accomplished in 14 years."
Some 32 foreign leaders attended the funeral in Cararacas on Friday at the city's military academy.
Embalmed and on display "like Lenin", Chavez's body will remain on public display for a week. Officials said his body would then be placed in a glass casket and housed at the military barracks where he plotted a failed coup in 1992.