That top of the world feeling

As a nation the French are not given to hyperbole. But, says VAIJU NARAVANE, there is a curious feel- good factor in the air these days and the mood is upbeat.

LAST SUNDAY when France returned from the edge of catastrophe to beat Italy in the Euro 2000 final, some half a million people made a beeline for the Champs Elysees in Paris to celebrate. They hooted car horns, sang, sprayed each other with champagne and danced with mad abandon until the wee hours of the morning.

One of the revellers, a woman, plump and fortyish, interviewed by a reporter said: ``Our victory did not surprise me at all. It couldn't have been any other way. At the moment France is sailing under a favourable wind and after many years things are going right for a change. How could we have lost? It's unthinkable.''

The French are not a nation given to this kind of hyperbole. As a rule they are collective moaners, often bad-tempered and complaining. But there is a curious feel-good factor in the air these days and the mood is upbeat.

``The sales have not been this good in a very long time. There is a kind of febrility, an excitement even. It is true that the holidays are approaching, the weather is better and people are nicer because its sunny. But that does not account for the sales. Even women in their late Fifties and Sixties are dropping by to pick up something dainty and attractive,'' says a woman who runs a shop in Montmartre.

Her optimism is echoed in the figures recently released by the Ministries of industry, finance, labour and employment.

France has not only come out of the recession of the Eighties, it is one of Europe's fastest-growing economies.

The Government finds itself in the enviable position of having an unbudgeted extra 29 billion francs to spend and the weak Euro has ensured that exports are booming. ``It's a heady mix. The economy is doing well and that has injected a certain confidence into the people. No longer are the newspapers full of sad stories of huge job cutbacks or the closure of factories.

The way this feel-good factor is reflected in the press too is very subtle. Now you have more stories of people who used their creativity and imagination to hit the jackpot after having been thrown out of their jobs - adversity bringing out the best in them.

There is a positive spin on the articles while before they tended to be sob stories of people feeling sorry for themselves. There is a new gung-ho spirit in the nation,'' says Mr. Jean-Claude Penicault, an economist.

But the heady mix referred to by Mr. Penicault is more than just the return of temporarily lost confidence. Another essential element is power, and France feels both economically strong and politically powerful.

After a late entry into the cyber world France has caught up extremely fast. French industry is casting its net for mergers and acquisitions and the country has just taken over the rotating six-month Presidency of the European Union.

The President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, has vowed that the French term at the head of the E.U. will be a model of efficiency and productivity.

``The French example is of interest. This is the only country in Europe where the Chief Executive and his Prime Minister - and both posts carry considerable power under the French Constitution - belong to opposing parties. Mr. Chirac's politics are essentially liberal, although he has made something of a mantra out of social solidarity.

``The Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Jospin, on the other hand, is much more of an old style socialist, still agitating for the protection of social rights - paid vacations, heavily subsidised health care, security of employment, reduction of working hours. It is quite amazing how well these two men have steered the destiny of France despite the deep differences that separate them.

``They are political rivals but until now they have managed to keep their personal competition from damaging or influencing their political choices. Whether this will continue to be the case is uncertain,'' says Mr. Penicault.

Elections are approaching and this rivalry is now beginning to become disruptive, even somewhat destructive. Both Mr. Chirac and Mr. Jospin would like to be elected President of France in 2002 and are jostling for media attention. Mr. Jospin with the help of Mr. Chirac's old foe, the former President, Valery Giscard d'Etaing, cornered the President into accepting a shortening of the French presidential term from seven to five years. A referendum has now been fixed for September 24 and it could go either way.

This is not without risk for Mr. Chirac. If the French abstain heavily and the minimum required number of voters do not go to the polls, the President's credibility would be so damaged that he would in all probability be forced to resign. If the answer is a resounding yes, it will strengthen Mr. Chirac's hand, but it would not seriously undermine Mr. Jospin who has always supported a shortened presidential term.

In addition, there is the hotly-contested Paris Mayoral poll in ten months' time. The incumbent, Mr. Jean Tiberi, a long-time Chirac loyalist has been accused of rigging voter lists and there is real danger of the corruption scandal reaching the President himself who, before being elected Head of State, was one of the capital's most successful and high profile Mayors.

It is with this backdrop of political manoeuvring that France has taken over the E.U. presidency. The French have sketched out an ambitious agenda. They would like to move towards a European rights charter, successfully reform European institutions and humanise the faceless bureaucracy in Brussels by ``bringing it closer to the citizens''.

But will France's redoubtable duo be able to carry the plan forward in the face of their own conflicting ambitions?

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