One
More Chance for the French Left
James Cohen*
After their
unexpected but decisive victory in legislative elections June 1st, the French
Socialist Party and its coalition partners, including the Communist Party and
the Greens, formed a government and settled down to the difficult business of
governing, under the leadership of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
It is widely
expected - though not yet confirmed - that the new government will suspend the
closing of the Renault automobile works' plant in Vilvorde,
in the outskirts of
European financial
markets are reportedly uneasy in the wake of the left victory. Several
privatizations of large nationalized corporations, in the works under the
former government, will be suspended. The Socialists are firm supporters of the
common European currency, but they may modify its implementation schedule. The
"Euro" is supposed to take effect in 1999.
The Socialists
are also likely to defer or modify the European "convergence
criteria" which, under JuppE, resulted in
strenuous efforts to bring the national budget deficit to below 3% of the gross
domestic product.
Repressive
anti-immigrant laws passed in 1993 under conservative Interior Minister Charles
Pasqua should normally be repealed within several
months - if the socialists keeps their promise on this
sensitive issue.
The tactic of
early parliamentary elections backfired spectacularly on President Jacques
Chirac. The left won 319 seats out of 577, including 245 for the Socialist
Party, 39 for the Communists, 7 for the Greens (their first seats ever) and 24
for other left-of-center candidates.
The Socialists'
exceptional efforts to promote women candidates has
lifted the percentage of female deputies to over 10% for the first time.
The right
salvaged only 258 seats out of 477. Nearly all of these are held by the UDF
(Union for French Democracy, 108 seats) and the neo-Gaullist RPR (Rally for the
Republic, 140 seats), but the racist National Front did manage one victory, in
the Mediterranean coastal city of Toulon - already a bastion of far-right
strength.
A desperate
battle for succession has begun at the head of the two major conservative
parties, which were severely destabilized by their defeat. The internal battle
in the RPR pits current party president Alain JuppE,
the big loser in these elections, against Philippe Seguin,
who would no doubt have been prime minsiter had the
right won.
Although it may
look as though French politics is a quirky game, veering from one extreme to
the other every few years, in fact the concerns expressed by voters have been
quite consistent: unemployment, security and the erosion of welfare-state
benefits are at the top of most peoples' list of worries. It was because Alain JuppE's government was so overtly unresponsive to these
concerns that the left was given another chance.
Prime Minister
Jospin will have to "cohabit" with a president of the opposite camp -
the third such experience since 1986, although this is
the first time it has involved a left-wing government and a conservative
president. This scenario was not anticipated by Charles De Gaullt
and other the founders of the
The new
government reflects a new diversity on the French left. It includes two
Communist ministers, one Green, one dissident (anti-Maastricht) socialist and
three members of the center-left Radical Socialst
Party. It features several women in high-ranking positions. Martine Aubry,
daughter of former European Commissioner Jacques Delors,
will be Minister of Labor, which she also occupied in the early 90s. Elisabeth Guigou has been named Minister of Justice while
Green leader
Dominique Voynet, architect of her party's coalition
with the socialists, will head a ministry that combines environmental policy
with territorial organization. The strategic post of Minister of Economy and
Finance and Industry will be held by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a key advisor to
Jospin. (He is a male although he has the same first name as Voynet; Dominique is one of those unisex French first
names, like Claude.)
Leaders on the
left are keenly aware that the new government cannot afford to disappoint its
supporters, as occurred several times the 80s, because this time the
consequences could be disastrous. The National Front, with its 15% support
nationally, could begin to make even more serious inroads in French
institutions if voters' concerns are not met with decisive action.
* James Cohen is a Professor of Political
Science at the University of Paris VIII (St. Denis). Article previously published
in "In These Times" (Chicago)
Back to Index
Back to The Cornershag