Word: raffarin
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...Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's rightist government completed its fourth full month in office last week, it continues to shy away from many of the reforms it once promised to impose. Analysts have stopped counting all the contradictions, policy pirouettes and public climb-downs that have punctuated its brief reign. Raffarin and his neo-Gaullist boss?President Jacques Chirac?benefit from near-complete conservative domination of the French political system, but you wouldn't know it from their policies. That has led traditional allies like Seillière and other business leaders to lament the lost opportunity?a chance...
...there may be wisdom in Raffarin's go-slow strategy. In 1995, France's last conservative government provoked crippling month-long strikes with its steamroller approach to reform. The fury unleashed by that effort cost the rightist government of Prime Minister Alain Juppé its parliamentary majority in 1997 elections, won by a previously floundering coalition of leftist parties united under Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin. Aware of France's dimming economic outlook, Chirac and Raffarin are now opting for caution over collision?and have backed down when their measures have generated opposition. The tact is apparently working: approval ratings...
...habit of jumping gender barriers. Now she's bridging political divides as well. Despite links with Socialist leaders dating back to the late President François Mitterrand, the leftist Lenoir was named France's Minister of European Affairs last week by new conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The nomination of Lenoir surprised many on both ends of the political spectrum. But her appointment was described by some observers as proof of Raffarin's determination to assemble a government attentive to - and comprising - all segments of French social and political life. "I think it not only reflects...
...TIME: Traditional right-left antagonisms make your appointment surprising. Lenoir: True, but Raffarin is showing he's dedicated to bipartisanship. There is room for everyone. There's got to be if you want the entire expanse of French society to see its reflection in a government. On the European level, you're either pro- European or not. If you are, traditional party politics and ideologies lose their importance. TIME: What strengths won you the job? Lenoir: I plan on drawing from my years as a negotiator, adviser and partner with people and administrations on the European level. The experience...
FRANCE Careful Choices Wasting little time after his May 5 landslide re-election, French President Jacques Chirac appointed an interim government of conservative allies to set policy ahead of general elections in June. Led by centrist Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the rightist government will seek to address popular voter issues like rising crime, while revisiting measures passed by the leftist coalition of former Premier Lionel Jospin. The nomination of the Raffarin team marks the first time Chirac has shared power with a friendly government since the left swept to power...