POLITICS: French Right Suffers Setback

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Mar 22 2004 (IPS) - The French right-wing government led by President Jacques Chirac suffered a big defeat in the first round of regional elections Sunday, confirming predictions that social conflicts could influence election outcome.

The ruling party Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) lost the first electoral round in 19 of the 22 regions. These include eight where the UMP ran the local government until this week.

In the decisive balloting next week the UMP will face the leftist coalition led by the Socialist Party (PS) and also the neo-fascist party National (FN) which qualified for the next round in practically all regions.

A party winning more than 10 percent of the vote qualifies for the second, decisive second round.

France is divided into 22 local administrative regions. Local administration deals usually with issues such as environment, infrastructure and industrial policy.

The PS-led coalition which obtained 41 percent of the vote, appears to be in position to win at least 13 regions. The UMP and the junior right-wing party Union pour de la Democratie de France (UDF) together won only 33 percent of the national vote.

The FN averaged 17 percent of the vote but does not appear to be in a position to win any region in the second round next Sunday. It can at best block a UMP recovery in 19 regions, and so help the PS-led leftist coalition to consolidate its triumph.

The UMP’s electoral debacle is seen as a popular reaction to the government’s social, economic, and educational policies. Voters punished the government "due to its failed labour market, health, education, and research policies," PS leader Francois Hollande said in a statement.

"People in the regions note that this government has reduced the recruitment of teachers and professors in schools by 40 percent," he said.

Yves Crochet from the Green Party said the election had come as "a referendum against the government of Jacques Chirac."

General secretary of the UMP Philip Douste Blazy admitted that "our policies might have provoked some discontent, but this is so only because we are working to modernise the state."

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he had got the message, and would take it into account for future policy. If he is not axed, that is. "Bye bye, Raffarin", publisher of the Liberation daily Serge July wrote Monday.

The government has faced protests over its policies to a degree not seen in many years. The latest in these is the protest against research policy.

In early January scientists published an open letter urging the government to revise cuts in the research budget of up to 50 percent. Two weeks ago hundreds of leading scientists working at state-owned research centres suspended performance of administrative tasks.

Their spokesperson Alain Trautmann told IPS that "this government is responsible for the brain-drain France is suffering. Why should young researchers and scientists remain in France, where they don’t even get a minimum salary, when they can find excellent working conditions abroad, especially in the United States?"

With polls indicating 90 percent public support to the scientists, the government announced an increase in the research budget. But the scientists rejected the offer as another promise unlikely to be kept.