Chirac risks a lame duck presidency

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.

“Seguin’s last-minute appearance could be seen by voters the same way Margaret Thatcher’s replacement by John Major looked to the British, and the far-Right supporters may decide to stop the left by backing the Centre-Right,” wrote political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi in the weekly Journal Du Dimanche.

“If these conditions come together, then the second round could add yet another surprise to the most surprising election in the fifth Republic,” Parodi wrote.

On the eve of polling, sports fans watching France’s Rugby Union Championship final between Toulouse and Bourgoin got an insight into their country’s possible political future.

Millions of television viewers saw Chirac sharing the VIP stand with the two men best-placed to become his next prime minister. But Jospin was banished to the far end of the front row while Seguin sat at the President’s left.

Some 39 million voters are due to choose 565 deputies whose seats in the 577-strong National Assembly were not decided in the first round.

National front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose party took 15 percent of the vote a week ago, urged voters to “punish” the ruling coalition. In 75 constituencies, the Front is pitted against candidates of the Centre-Right and the Leftist Bloc.

In the first round, when the combined left polled 40.1 percent of the vote to 36.5 for the Centre-Right, candidates were separated by less than two percentage points in 80 of the 577 constituencies.