France's Mr. Clean

...The next question Chevènement was due to tackle before his medical troubles developed was what to do with the rejected thousands...

...But he holds a key post and his prolonged absence from the government may prove awkward for Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin...

...In the wake of last spring's regional elections, UDF members formed alliances with the FN in two regions, RhôneAlpes (whose capital is Lyons) and Languedoc-Roussillon (whose capital is Montpellier...

...The increased disarray of his CenterRight opposition has also benefited Jospin...

...His moderation has made for itchiness on the Left, though, mainly among Communists and his Socialist Party's Left wing, which is close to the Trotskyists...

...Its members include Millon and Jacques Blanc, President of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, who also owes his seat to the FN...

...Pollsters and government officials are well aware, though, that the picture could change as American and European stock exchanges start feeling the combined effects of the Asian financial crisis' backlash, Russia's paralysis and Clinton's uncertain future...

...The immigration problem, meanwhile, has yet to be solved...

...Chirac lacks determined, united and loyal political backing...

...As a result, Jospin's popularity has spiraled upward among Centrist voters, who prefer him to Chirac according to some polls...

...It has received the support of some intellectuals, notably Pierre Bourdieu, one of France's leading sociologists, who argues that "subversion" is the only means of changing a society he sees as divided between those who dominate and those who are dominated...

...Implicit support for the Chevènement line has come from a group of intellectuals close to the Socialist Party...

...It is hoped that legislation introducing a 35-hour week, due to be phased in over the next two years, will help create more jobs...

...He remains attached to a centralized view of the state, to generous social and welfare services, and to proceeding cautiously with the privatization of public-sector services and industries...

...Nevertheless, both men agreed that residence and work permits should not be given to any of the 60,000 now in limbo...

...Indeed, a deep rift has opened up in the RPR and UDF between leaders committed to what is called here "republican"— meaning democratic—values and those advocating a tactical alliance with JeanMarie Le Pen's far-Right National Front (FN...

...Consequently, Chevènement has been able to deal with tricky issues such as immigration without attracting too much flak from the Center-Right and without totally alienating the Left, in spite of some Trotskyist-led activism in favor of illegal immigrants...

...Thus little has been reported about the current physical condition of Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement, who lapsed into a coma for several days after undergoing on September 2 what was said to be a minor operation...

...Their line is that Jospin should take advantage of his strong position to introduce radical reforms...

...That the President of the Rhône-Alpes region, Charles Millon, who agreed to the deal with the FN, had been a French Defense Minister and one of the CenterRight's heavy weights was especially embarrassing...

...Employers, who were initially hostile to the law, have so far proved less obstructive than the trade unions had feared...

...Somewhat irrationally, both his and neo-Gaullist President Jacques Chirac's respective popularity ratings even soared in July after France won soccer's World Cup...

...RPR deputies abstained...

...Janice Valls-Russell writes about French and Spanish affairs for the NL...

...Mitterrand could always rely on his Socialist Party to support him, even when it was in opposition...

...The rest of the UDF seems to be moving centerward...

...These numbers have coincided with a more optimistic mood overall in the country...

...Jean-Jack Queyranne, the Minister for Overseas Cooperation, who is standing in for Chevènement, insists that he will enforce this approach...

...Chirac, however, is in a more difficult position than his predecessor was...

...Jospin has been helped by a modest upturn of the French economy that has slowed down the rise in unemployment...

...He personally was in favor of sending them back to their countries...

...Roughly 75,000 illegal immigrants have been granted residence and work permits...

...Since the beginning of the year, the far Left has been trying to put pressure on the government by exploiting the discontent of many who are unemployed, of teachers in underprivileged areas, and of illegal immigrants...

...Since his election in May 1997, the Prime Minister has had an enviably good run in the opinion polls...

...The neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its ally, the Union for French Democracy (UDF), are struggling to recover from the debacle caused by Chirac's decision to call a snap parliamentary election last year...

...Clean By Janice Valls-Russell Paris In sharp contrast to the lurid coverage President Bill Clinton's personal affairs have been receiving in the U.S., the French media refrain from trespassing on the private lives of public figures...

...In fact, the UDF faction favoring the FN link subsequently decided to secede...

...This is where Chevènement comes in...

...The UDF accepted the FN votes in those assemblies in order to form local administrations...

...Abroad, he is known largely for having resigned from his post of Defense Minister at the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War...

...Both positions have won him much sympathy on the far Left, where his appointment as Interior Minister was welcomed...

...Jospin has publicly ruled out the use of force and "humiliation...

...That makes it difficult for the opposition to be an effective critic...

...This led to the victory of a Socialist-Communist-Green alliance and forced the President into what the French calla "cohabitation" with Jospin...

...But the Prime Minister has opted for cultivating the profile of a moderate, open-minded Mr...

...Clean— although, unlike Britain's Tony Blair, there is still an archaic technocratic whiff about him...

...Headed by Régis Debray, a writer who is an erstwhile supporter of Che Guevara and a former adviser to Mitterrand, the group published an appeal to "refound the republic" in Le Monde on September 9. It urged a firm stand on immigration and street violence, and proposed measures akin to Tony Blair's to reinstill a dose of responsibility among parents and politicians alike...

...His loyalty to "la République" recalls, in several respects, de Gaulle'snear-mystical love for"laFrance" (but unlike de Gaulle, Chevènement does not view the country as an extension of his own ego...

...The strategy has proved a clever way of achieving a consensus on issues the Prime Minister fears might be controversial, or of giving him an excuse for not sticking to his election promises...

...Its appeal was criticized by the far Left and welcomed by the Rightof-Center Figaro—to the embarrassment of Jospin's entourage, who are praying that Chevènement will recover soon...

...Jospin's still stood at 60 per cent in mid-September...

...Led by Alain Madelin, a former Finance Minister and a keen freemarketeer, the secessionists have established the incongruously named Liberal Democratic Party...

...After all, it leaves him with virtually no opposition and able to confidently pursue his Socialist program...

...François Bayrou, a Centrist and former Education Minister, was elected President of the UDF on September 16...

...Unlike the late Socialist President François Mitterrand, who did his best to hamper government action when Chirac was Prime Minister in 1986-88, the latter's criticism of Jospin has been rather mild...

...At the same time, Chevènement is respected in the ranks of the Center-Right for his staunch attachment to the French Republic and its institutions, particularly the educational system, the police and the Armed Forces...

...The Center-Right's ethical and electoral dilemma over the National Front might appear to be good for Jospin...

...Despite its xenophobic, anti-democratic ideology, the FN has become a power to be reckoned with, at least on the local level...

...In its 15 months of existence, however, his government has commissioned 50 reports on subjects as disparate as immigration and the status of homosexual couples...

...60,000 have been turned down...

...He has been resolutely hostile as well to the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties that, in his view, dangerously weaken the sovereignty of member states within the European Union...

...Month after month, he has retained the public's confidence...

...They know that replacing him would not be easy...