Word: socialists
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Which is exactly what Le Pen wanted, even though he campaigned fiercely against both the left and the center-right. Forcing Chirac to share power with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, he argued, would deprive the President of a "blank check to dissolve the French nation into the Europe of Maastricht," referring to the treaty decreeing that the European Union will have a single currency and thus much closer economic and political integration in 1999. Moreover, Le Pen believed the Socialist victory would provoke a political crisis in which voters would turn to his anti-Europe, France-first movement...
...rousing style while stumping for fellow far-rightists last month. He declared that many incumbents "deserve to be hanged" for corruption. He provocatively denounced European integration as "Hitler's dream come true." At one rally, he walked onstage with a platter bearing a papier-mache head of his main Socialist nemesis, Strasbourg Mayor (now Communications Minister) Catherine Trautmann. But it was in the town of Mantes-la-Jolie, where his daughter was running for parliament, that Le Pen really outdid himself. Taunted by a pro-Socialist crowd, Le Pen leaped out of his car and tore into the throng with...
...free lunch. Addressing German concerns, Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm warned that the funds must be paid back in full. "There is no suggestion lots of subsidies will be handed out," he said. Nonetheless, the deal seemed to be a step in the right direction for France's new Socialist Government, which has stressed that the alliance focus on unemployment rather than deficit reduction. But the compromise only went so far. While France was able to pry some concessions from the talks, Germany's position on strict budgetary guidelines was entrenched after it was agreed that member nations which...
...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...
...most important issue for the two-headed government will be France's attitude toward further Europe integration. Citing the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand's leading role in negotiating the Maastricht Treaty, which sets the rules for combining Europe's 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...