Word: premiers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Francois Mitterrand won a second seven-year term as France's President on Sunday, with 54% of the vote against Premier Jacques Chirac's 46%. The result was hardly startling after Mitterrand's strong showing in the first round of balloting on April 24, though the release of three French hostages in Lebanon last Wednesday seemed briefly to boost Chirac's chances. Chirac failed to capture enough supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the ultra-rightist candidate, who fared surprisingly well in the initial round. On the eve of his triumph, Mitterrand, 71, outlined his plans for the second term...
...majority of French men and women who voted for the National Front always thought as they do today, but they used to vote for Premier Chirac's party. Put simply, there has been a restructuring of the right because the Premier, given his obligations, could not go as far as Mr. Le Pen in responding to the aspirations and the needs of those people...
...Giscard d'Estaing offered Chirac his support. In a television address, Giscard asked his followers to vote for Chirac because "we cannot pay the price of changing policy every two years, and . . . vote every six months." One of Chirac's attractions remains his past two years in office. The Premier already has a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly that he can use to govern if elected. On the other hand, Mitterrand, if re-elected, would have to fashion his own parliamentary majority...
After digesting the first-round results, Chirac threw himself into a frenetic three-stop-a-day campaign across France. In six days, the Premier and his entourage were planning to hit 18 cities, eleven more than he had intended to blitz before the first-round tallies appeared. Somehow the hyperkinetic candidate was also managing to run the government and deal with the crisis in New Caledonia...
...barnstorming dash, Chirac will seek to appeal to both the center- right and Le Pen voters. The Premier flatly ruled out any deals with the National Front, but he said he would address "the worries" of extreme-right voters. Chirac mentioned "all those who want security and to be assured that delinquency, criminality and terrorism will be fought with the necessary firmness; that our national identity will be preserved; that clandestine immigration will be fought...