Word: raffarin
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...Schröder offer a highway project - a paving over of the problem that looks strikingly similar to the French model of dual leaders: a President and a Prime Minister. That system works when the two office holders are of a similar mind, as Chirac is with Jean-Pierre Raffarin. But when they're not, as last year's French elections showed, popular support can falter. And that's the last thing an already unloved and ill-understood E.U. can afford
...reform failing pension systems. How governments respond to this wave of strikes - and other walkouts that are still to come - will help determine how their economies weather the economic slump. In the rough-and-ready camp are British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his French counterpart, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Last week Blair offered a deal to state healthcare workers for a pay rise tied to reforms, but refused wage demands by striking firefighters unless they modernize. Raffarin scored an important victory by threatening tough action against strikers who break the law. As a result, industrial action by farmers, truckers...
That support has come at a price. Not only are reformists like Seillière cry-ing foul, but government spin control has at times been dizzying. Raffarin cabinet members have issued clashing policy pronouncements, forcing the Prime Minister to officiate and clear the air. Sometimes the government shows signs of wanting reform but lacking the stomach to go through with it. Last week, for example, after a junior minister provoked a storm by revealing job reductions planned for France's mammoth public school system, Education Minister Luc Ferry rushed to placate teachers' unions with assurances that only administrative posts...
...represents a significant retreat from the 35-hour week instituted by Jospin. Then the government leaked its 2003 budget, which would reduce income taxes and employer-paid benefits but raise minimum wages and maintain the state's status as France's largest employer, providing one of every four jobs. "Raffarin previously flirted with reform, but that's changing with this budget," says political analyst Alain Duhamel. "On areas like decentralization, tax reduction and even modifying the 35-hour week, he is proving reformist. On the issues more likely to provoke explosion?reducing civil servants and public services, for starters...
...good news for Raffarin is that even though France's social and labor terrain is heavily mined, his majority may be able to use its five-year term to put its reforms into place gradually?and ride out any waves of protest. With the leftist opposition in disarray after its electoral trouncing last June, Raffarin's stiffest challenge may come from the European Union: its requirement that budget deficits steadily come down will be tough during an economic slump, especially if Raffarin cuts taxes without shrinking the public sector. That's an economic equation studded with contradiction and conflict?qualities...