Rightist win means changes in France
PARIS (AP) – France’s right has won across-the-board control of national politics with its crushing victory in legislative elections. Still, life probably won’t change radically. President Jacques Chirac has promised not to do away with the main legacy of the Socialist-led left, the 35-hour work week. Popular with employees, it was a sore point with small business.
Sweeping free-market reform is also unlikely.
The French cherish their social safety net, and Chirac’s attempts to streamline the state led to paralyzing union strikes in 1995, his first year in office.
Even the that may soon feel a change, however, is the nation’s illegal immigrant community, especially the many Afghans, Kurds and Iraqis headed for Britain, where asylum laws are comparatively looser.
Chirac’s government has said it hopes to close a Red Cross center that serves as a base for illegal immigrants trying to slip into Britain through the Channel Tunnel – an idea the left has resisted.
On Monday, Britain’s home secretary expressed confidence that the French conservatives will crack down.
“We can do business with this government,” David Blunkett said, adding that he had invited France’s new interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, to London next week to talk about the problem.
Chirac, 69, was re-elected on May 5 for a second term, crushing his far-right, anti-immigration challenger, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a surprise candidate in the runoff.
On Sunday, when France elected a vast majority of Chirac’s allies to the National Assembly, the president won the backing he needed to carry out his plans.
Chirac has pledged to crack down on crime, voters’ No. 1 concern, by increasing funding, strengthening police forces and speeding up the justice system.
Those changes, already under way, are expected to pick up speed when the new National Assembly convenes in July. Chirac also has promised to lower taxes, requiring budget spending that will probably put France at odds with the European Union’s tough standards.
Suddenly, Chirac has found himself with more influence than at any time during the past five years. During his first term, the conservative president shared power with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin – a tense arrangement known as “cohabitation.”
Chirac was forced to watch, powerless, as the left pushed through major reforms, such as shortening the work week from 39 to 35 hours. Chirac has said he won’t overhaul the program but merely tweak it to ease the ire of business leaders, who say it hurts profits and flexibility.
Now that cohabitation is over, Chirac and his conservative prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, face other challenges.
“The French are very contradictory in their demands,” said Dominique Moisi, deputy head of the French Institute for International Relations. “They want less state in terms of taxation and control of the economy, and at the same time they want more state – to be protected from insecurity, which usually means more taxes to fund more police forces.”
Another challenge will be dialogue with unions. The post-election government got a taste of social unrest Monday when pediatricians went on strike to press the state to raise the fees they can charge for an office visit.
Chirac’s centrist and rightist allies, grouped in the recently formed Union for a Presidential Majority, won 399 of the National Assembly’s 577 seats in Sunday’s election. Turnout was at a record low – 61 percent – taking some of the shine off their victory.
The left, from Communists to Socialists to Greens, won only 178 seats, down from 318 in the outgoing parliament.