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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Left wins french elections - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Left wins french elections

﻿<br﻿>﻿</b>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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by Raghu Krishnan﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, July - August 1997﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿</center>﻿


French President Jacques Chirac and his outgoing right-wing alliance government were handed a major defeat in legislative elections held on May 25 and June 1. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The rightist alliance received only 36 percent of votes in the first round and saw their total seats cut down to 255 from 484 in the 577-seat lower house, the National Assembly. The left-wing alliance, led by new Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Socialist Party (PS), was returned to power after suffering a major defeat in 1993. This time, the Left alliance includes the Green Party (making its first appearance in Parliament) and relies on the Communist Party (PCF) for its majority.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

One sombre and ominous message from these elections: the neo-fascist Front National (FN) improved on its 1993 score, polling just under 15 percent in the first round and winning one seat in the new Assembly.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Chirac dissolved the right-wing majority lower house nearly a year before the required date because the Right felt it had a much better chance of winning elections now than in 1998. Polls taken in late April predicted they would win, albeit with a reduced majority. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The right-wing and its big business backers thought the time was ripe to renew the government's mandate. Delaying such a renewal, they argued, would mean going another year without implementing aggressive austerity measures. They knew that it would be utter folly to go the polls in 1998 after implementing such measures in 1997 in keeping with the letter and spirit of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty on European Monetary Union which calls for a single currency to be adopted in 1999.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The victory for the Socialist Party (PS) alliance can be seen as a direct if rather "imperfect" extension of the strike and social movement that rocked the country in November and December 1995. That movement the biggest since May 1968 forced the Juppé government to abandon some parts of a reform package aimed at attacking public sector pensions, and cutting back the railway and health care systems.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The new volatile social and political climate was exemplified by the outbreak through 1996 and 1997 of confrontational struggles in atypical sectors, such as among truckdrivers, bank workers and hospital interns.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Another example was the mass movement that developed earlier this year against the second wave of draconian anti-immigration legislation introduced since the Right's victory in 1993. Debate and passage of the xenophobic legislation coincided with municipal election gains for the FN, which sparked another round of protests and organising this time against both the FN and government complicity with it. A further example of the new climate was the success of a feminist organising conference attended by 2000 women and men earlier in the year.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

How well does the new government represent the aspirations and dynamism of the different forces that have burst onto the scene since late 1995? How far can it be expected to accompany and lead the dynamic of December 1995 and the election victory, rather than disappoint and break it?

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In answering these questions, it is important not to draw hasty comparisons between the PS victory in France and the victory of Tony Blair's Labour Party in Britain.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In the first place, the social and political situation in France does not resemble that of post-Thatcher Britain. It was precisely in response to the beginnings of a Thatcherite turn that the French unleashed the December 1995 protest movement and threw the Right out of office.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In the second place, the PS has not made a Blairite turn, although it did oversee France's neo-liberal shift from the mid-1980s onwards. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In recent times, the PS has been nursing its wounds from its 1993 electoral drubbing and adopting a more humble profile in the face of protest and strike movements that have jealously guarded their independence and voiced their criticisms of the PS record in office in the 1980s and early 1990s.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The PS campaigned for and has announced the abrogation of the anti-immigrant Pasqua and Debre laws. It has announced the legalisation of between 10,000 and 40,000 undocumented immigrants. It campaigned for and has announced the suspension of the Superphenix nuclear plant and mammoth Rhein-Rhone canal project. It campaigned for and has announced an increase in the minimum wage. These are all real gains.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

To reduce unemployment, it campaigned for a reduction of the working week to 35 hours with no loss in pay and the state-funded creation of 700,000 jobs for youth. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

One can find fault easily enough even in those measures that have already been announced. What immigration legislation will replace the abrogated laws? And what will become of the "illegal" immigrants not legalised in the current round? Similarly, Jospin announced that the 35-hour workweek would only be implemented by the end of the first mandate in 2002.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

But the main problems lie elsewhere. First, one of credibility pure and simple. The French saw too many PS promises broken in the 1980s.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Second, the question of Europe the Maastricht single currency convergence criteria and the post-convergence austerity-driven Stability Pact will play an overriding role in determining government policy. All the progressive economic measures run the risk of being sacrificed on the altar of the single currency, since it is difficult to see how the promises can be respected without increasing the public deficit. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Signs in this department are less than encouraging, following Jospin's renewed acceptance of the convergence criteria and the single currency Stability Pact at the Amsterdam summit of EU states in mid-June.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Strict adherence to the Maastricht criteria is virtually impossible in the two key European Union (EU) countries France and Germany and is rapidly losing favour with EU public opinion. Coupled with the defeat of Chirac and the Right, this makes for a window of opportunity for the Left government in France.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Will it seize this opportunity? Only time and the unfolding political and social struggles will tell.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The trade unions and social movements have already declared that there will be no honeymoon with the new PS government. A rally of more than 70,000 people was held in Paris on June 10 (at the same time as another large rally in Bonn) to demand action on unemployment.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The European dimension will be crucial for creating a better relationship of forces for the Left in each country. Protests against the closing of the Renault car plant in Vilvoorde, Belgium marked a starting point for cross-border organising, as did the pan-European march for jobs that descended from all corners of Europe on Amsterdam during the EU summit. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

For all their dynamism and combativeness, the forces of protest and resistance in post-1995 France are ideologically fragmented and have not rallied around any common political project to the left of the PS. The PCF has only benefitted slightly from the new climate (increasing its seat total from 23 to 38) thanks to its involvement in key struggles a﻿nd its open and updated image.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The Greens have sacrificed a good deal of their political independence in exchange for an electoral agreement with the PS that brought them seven seats.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The task of forging an inclusive radical political alternative for critical-minded sectors remains an urgent one to force the PS government's hand and to prepare for eventual disappointment and the turbulence that follows. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

For there should be no mistake. If the progressive dynamic of the past two and a half years is broken by some combination of PS betrayal and unfavorable political and economic circumstances, in present conditions it will not be the critical Left that gains the upper hand. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The political Right may well be in disarray and smarting from a well-deserved thrashing at the polls. However, a rightward realignment can already be detected, with the rank and file and some leaders of the main right-wing parties already pleading openly for closer collaboration with the neo-fascist FN. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

As for the FN, it keeps on winning municipal governments and is only kept out of parliament (it has one seat now) by an undemocratic voting system that works against it for the time being. Further, it learned the lesson of December 1995, and has turned its attention to setting up FN trade unions and soup kitchens in order to strengthen its "social" image.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The FN vote can no longer be described as a mere "protest" vote, but rather has become a vote "for" the party's brand of radical xenophobic and authoritarian populism. It now has real roots in the urban, working class areas where it does best.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The Left victory in France is a defeat for the Right and the neo-liberal project. It creates real opportunities for those seeking a progressive response to the challenges of capitalist globalisation and restructuring, in the European Union and beyond. Failure, however, could pave the way for a defeat of historic proportions..

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Raghu Krishnan is a Canadian translator and freelance journalist currently studying in Paris. He can be reached by e-mail at: raghu@medhunters.com﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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