The Hindu : Chirac angry over Jospin charges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002

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International

Chirac angry over Jospin charges

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, MARCH. 12. The French President, Jacques Chirac, is a very angry man. His Prime Minister and electoral rival, Socialist Lionel Jospin, called the 69 year old President who is seeking a second term "tired, old and worn out.'' In an interview published on Monday, Mr. Chirac described his younger opponent as "aggressive, arrogant and contemptuous.''

With the first round of the election just six weeks away, the French are beginning to relish what has become a regular trade-off of insults.

Mr. Chirac's election, the Socialist Prime Minister told reporters, "will not be a good thing for my country. In 1995 I was there to save my side. This time I am here to win,'' he said, referring to the election that brought Mr. Chirac to power. Mr Jospin lost that election, but two years later, the French Left won an overwhelming victory in the legislative polls that made him Prime Minister under France's unique system of power-sharing called co-habitation.

Mr. Chirac, who was for over a decade the powerful Mayor of Paris before his election as President in 1995, is going through a turbulent campaign. There is phenomenal discord in the right wing camp with former Ministers, Charles Pasqua and Francois Bayrou both running. The multiple candidacies on the right are bound to weaken Mr. Chirac's prospects in the first round, pollsters predict. Mr Chirac is also facing problems of credibility, with several scandals from his past now catching up with him.

A former anti-corruption judge, Eric Halphen, has just published a best-selling book of memoirs detailing the difficulties he faced while investigating allegations of corruption against members of Mr. Chirac's RPR party. A former colleague and elected official, Didier Schuller, who recently returned from a seven-year exile in the Dominican Republic dealt another blow to Mr. Chirac's electoral chances. In front of anti-corruption judges, Mr. Schuller confirmed reports of an elaborate system of kick-backs erected by the RPR Party at the Paris town hall when Mr. Chirac was the capital's Mayor.

The French political landscape this time around is fractured with a blurring of the traditional Left versus Right divide. Former Socialist Minister, Jean Pierre Chevenement, has launched what he calls the Republican Pole, in a bid to win disaffected voters from the centre-left and the centre-right. Others in the running include candidates from environmental groups, the extreme right, the communists and the extreme left. Arlette Laguiller, who champions workers rights representing orthodox leftist views, is tipped to win about seven per cent in the first round, while Jean Marie Le Pen who is he candidate of the extreme right wing National Front Party will probably rake in about ten per cent of the vote.

Mr. Jospin has managed to present himself as a good manager. His no-frills personality indicates that he is at least respected by the French, if not loved by them.

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