French Vote, Chirac Risks Lame-Duck Presidency

The french voted yesterday in a knife-edge election which could force gaullist President Jacques Chirac into tense cohabitation with a leftist Prime Minister and add to doubts over the planned European currency.

The outcome of the runoff ballot was thrown wide open after the socialist-communist bloc scored an upset win a week ago in the first round of the parliamentary election following a dull campaign. Voters who abstained in the first round or who backed the far right appeared to hold the key to the result.

Polling stations opened at 8 am in mainland France and are due to close at 8 pm when the first results projections will be released. The weather was sunny in most parts but rain was forecast in the south.

 

Chirac hastily dropped unpopular Prime Minister Alain Juppe after his gamble to call the snap election initially backfired, and offered voters the dream ticket of socially-conscious Philippe Seguin, who voted in the early morning in his fiefdom of Epinal in eastern France, and free-marketeer Alain Madelin.

If the ruling centre-right coalition loses, Chirac will be forced into cohabitation with a hostile government led by socialist leader Lionel Jospin bent on overturning austerity policies geared to fulfilling the criteria for the euro currency.

Jospin has set conditions for joining the euro, including relaxing the Maastricht criteria and gearing the single currency towards creating jobs. The communists, his possible partners in government, have rejected plans for the single currency.

The centre-right has appealed to voters to think of the future rather than venting short-term irritation at record unemployment and austerity measures needed so that France can qualify for the euro.