A historic change in Paris

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, MARCH 19.``Paris is worth a national slap in the face,'' wrote the influential daily Liberation when the French capital voted socialists after over a hundred years of conservative rule in the municipal elections held on Sunday. The French capital has been ruled by the right since the Paris Commune of 1870 and this is a historic change of political colour.

But socialist victories in Paris and Lyon, France's two largest cities could not mask voter discontent with socialist mayors and several major provincial towns voted for right-wing candidates.

Mr. Bertrand Delanoean, openly homosexual, left-wing politician benefited from the internecine quarrels within the rightist camp to win the cherry on the French cake. Right-wing contenders, Mr. Philippe Seguin, and the outgoing mayor, Mr. Jean Tiberi, were left bickering who was responsible for the ousting of the conservatives after 130 years of uninterrupted conservative rule.

Parisians partied late into the night jangling keys to signify that they had finally won the keys to the castle, the seemingly impregnable capital fortress held tenaciously by the conservatives.

Paris with its budget of $4.6 billions per year is an unparalleled springboard to national politics. The new Mayor of the capital, Mr. Bertrand Delanoe, is a low-key, 50-year-old senator. It is a sign of the times that his homosexuality was not held against him.

Lyon too, turned socialist after a long love affair with the conservatives which began in 1957. But the socialists were not outright winners there. Faced with a right-wing association with the extreme right, many centrist voters joined a ``republican pact'' to keep the extreme right out of Lyon's City Hall and handed the town to the socialists.

Victories in Paris and Lyon barely could not however compensate for the Left's disappointing score across the nation as the right wrested several major towns from the Left. In all, the Left lost over 40 major towns to the Right. Ministers like Jack Lang, Elizabeth Guigou and Pierre Muscovici were thrashed, as was former culture minister Catherine Trautmann who lost the city of Strasbourg in the north east.

This is indeed a disavowal of Mr. Lionel Jospin himself. The patrician Prime Minister had in the past repeatedly criticised the right for allowing its ministers to accumulate mandates, a system permitted by French law, whereby a person can hold several elected positions at the same time. Mr. Alain Juppe was at one time prime minister, president of the RPR party, Mayor of Bordeau and a conservative MP. But for this election Mr. Jospin went back on his own positions and paid a dear price.

But if the French Premier was hurt, the President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, emerged from this contest no less mauled. He was three times Mayor of Paris before being elected to the highest office in France. There have been allegations of top level corruption and siphoning off of funds during Mr. Chirac's 15 year rule over the French capital and the loss of Philippe Seguin, Mr. Chirac's hand-picked candidate is a serious setback for the President who is almost certainly seeking re-election next year.

The major losers of this election were the two extremes of the political spectrum, the communists and the extreme right National Front.

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