Word: chirac
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Seven weeks ago, French President Jacques Chirac impetuously decided to call a snap election, hoping that unhappy voters would give him a new mandate to push ahead on the tough economic reforms aimed at making his country ready to join the European common currency in 1999. But the French instead took the opportunity to slap Chirac and his austerity program, demolishing the right-wing majority in the National Assembly and installing rival Socialist Lionel Jospin as Prime Minister. Now the white-haired, square-jawed Jospin will share power with Chirac in an arrangement the French charmingly call "cohabitation...
Rarely has any political leader inflicted such a devastating wound on himself and his party. And Jospin, who barely lost to Chirac in the last presidential election, has promised big changes. He and his allies said they would fight France's stubborn 12.8% unemployment rate by creating 700,000 government-backed jobs, reduce the workweek from 39 to 35 hours with no loss in pay, suspend planned privatizations, cut the sales tax and raise the minimum wage. The leftist platform, if implemented, threatens to send the deficits soaring and derail French chances of meeting the tough criteria for joining Europe...
...Chirac campaigned in 1995 on promises of jobs, tax cuts and pay hikes, but he abruptly reversed himself six months later. Result: record low popularity ratings for Chirac and his Prime Minister, Alain Juppe. Last week's result was thus more a rejection of Chirac than a full embrace of the left. The cohabitation may not be easy to manage. Jospin, 59, is an austere former diplomat and economics professor who has promised to change much of the President's economic policy. Chirac, 64, is an instinctive political operator who is determined to trim France's huge welfare state...
...currencies, the Socialists claim to be staunch supporters of the monetary union. But there is an obvious contradiction between Jospin's economic policies and the Maastricht requirements. "Their economic recipes are diametrically opposed to what is needed to join the euro," says Pierre Lellouche, a foreign policy adviser to Chirac. Seeking to calm such fears, Jospin said last week that his promised economic measures would be introduced only gradually. Quicker action is urged by the Communists, who hold three Cabinet posts and whose 39 votes Jospin needs to muster a majority in the Assembly...
...Kohl, who announced he will seek re-election yet again next year, mainly to shepherd monetary union and the euro into existence. For its own good, he believes, Germany must be anchored in a strong European Union and not left to throw its weight around between East and West. Chirac demonstrated his commitment to monetary union, if not his political smarts, when he called the snap election in hopes of securing control of his parliament for the next five years. The Benelux countries are on board the money plan, and Ireland, Spain and Finland are eager. In an interview last...