Juppe Challenges Socialists

David Buchan writes from Paris

French Premier Alain Juppe Thursday sought to regain momentum in Frances election campaign by challenging the Socialists on what he considered the four weakest points in their platform - taxes, immigration, privatisation and Europe.

In a communique, Juppe demanded answers from Lionel Jospin, the Socialist leader, on the questions everyone is posing about the Socialists. These were how Jospin proposed to fulfil his programme without raising taxes, how after scrapping recent immigration laws he planned to prevent a massive return of illegal immigration, and how he planned to bridge divisions in his own party over privatisation and with the Communists over Europe and the single currency. The Socialist leader, whose morale has been boosted by opinion poll gains, promised early answers so as not to leave Juppe anxious.

 

The Gaullist prime ministers counter-attack came after a day in which President Jacques Chiracs attempt to reinvigorate the government campaign, with a widely published but cautiously worded article, fell rather flat, and after potentially damaging comments from former president Valery Giscard dEstaing on television on Wednesday night.

Giscard dEstaing, who created and until last year led the centre-right UDF that is the Gaullists coalition partner, said he had advised Chirac not to dissolve parliament. He had argued that the early election was risky because the polls would show that it was not the functioning of the [government] majority that was the problem, but rather that most French were unhappy with the way that they have been governed.

The first round of voting in the election will take place on May 25. Giscard dEstaing said the Juppe governments record was not all bad. He went on to advise Chirac to heed the message from the public which wants to be governed in another way. Laurent Fabius, the former Socialist prime minister, Thursday sought to guard against the possibility of a vacuum in the Socialist campaign if its main target