POLITICS-FRANCE: Left Makes a Last Effort

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jun 14 2002 (IPS) - Leftist parties are making a last attempt to win voters over for the final round of elections to the National Assembly Sunday.

The last-ditch efforts come in the face of reports indicating that the right-wing Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party headed by President Jacques Chirac could win as many as 400 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.

Poll predictions give the Socialists about 130 seats in parliament. But Socialist leaders believe they can win 75 more than that, besides another 20 seats for their allies, the Communist and the green parties.

The final shape of the National Assembly remains uncertain because of the electoral potential of those who do not vote. In the first round of voting last Sunday about 16 million of the electorate of 41 million did not vote. The almost 37 per cent abstention made that in a sense the most important political force. Analysts believe that most of those who did not vote are Left supporters.

Socialist Party leader Francois Holland says a triumph of the Left is still possible. In an appeal to those who did not vote last Sunday, Hollande said “what the French electorate has to determine with the election on Sunday is France’s future, and the balance and distribution of political power.”

Socialist Party spokesperson Vincent Peillon told voters: “Sometimes you have needed us, now it is our turn to demand your support.”

Analysts say one per cent of the vote represents about 30 seats in the National Assembly. If the Leftist parties can get a tenth of the 16 million votes not cast last Sunday, they could form the next government.

Dominique Strauss Kahn, former minister for finance in the last Socialist-led government says the election is still open. “It is like football,” he said. “A match is over only when the referee says so. It is the same in politics, voters are the referee.”

The Socialists are not contesting against Communist and Green candidates in 76 constituencies to boost the chances of the Left.

In the first round of voting on Sunday when all candidates who got more than 12.5 per cent of the vote went into the second round, the UMP along with smaller right-wing parties got 11.2 million votes, which was 44 per cent of the votes cast. The Socialist-led coalition got 9.7 million votes, 38 per cent of the votes cast.

The first round brought final decisions in 58 constituencies where no one qualified to oppose the leading candidate. Of these, 56 seats went to right-wing candidates, and two to Socialists.

Despite such trends, Jean-Francois Kahn, publisher of the leftist weekly Marianne told voters that “a surprise is possible”. The Left can still win, he said. “There is a huge reserve of electors in the abstention. It is up to the Socialist party to inspire these citizens to vote.”

The liberal newspaper Le Monde warned in an editorial comment that “if the UMP wins the parliamentary elections, we would face the unprecedented and undesirable situation of one party controlling all power in France.”

Jean Daniel, publisher of the liberal weekly Le Nouvel Observateur wrote that the interests of the Left are now “the same as those of the whole nation.” If the right-wing group controls parliament, “the independence of the judiciary as we know it now will no longer exist,” Daniel wrote.

The weekly points to the dangers of Chirac’s plans to wipe out all accusations of corruption pending against him and his close aides. “There is a danger of general amnesty for politicians accused of misuse of public funds,” the weekly wrote.

Chirac faces at least six cases of corruption. He stands accused of embezzlement of public funds during the 18 years he was mayor of Paris. He has avoided prosecution under the immunity given to him by the French Constitution as head of state. Charges are pending also against some of his closest aides, among them former prime minister Alain Juppe.

The campaigning has been marked by a lack of public debate. Hollande invited the UMP leaders to a public debate on the different programmes of the parties, but right-wing interim prime minister Jean-Pierre Rafarin declined to participate.

“My role is to govern, your role as leader of a party is to argue,” Rafarin told Hollande. “We have nothing to talk about in public.”