Dueling to Succeed Chirac

...De Villiers himself is bidding for the support of xenophobic voters who have previously backed the aging Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front (NF...

...In fairness, the same was true of other leading politicians from his camp and from the Socialist Party who campaigned for a Yes vote...

...For his crackdown on violence gives the impression that he is attempting to appeal not merely to conservatives but to voters inclined toward hard-liners on the Right like Philippe de Villiers, whose statements are memorable for their acid sting...

...On September 2 he was hospitalized, apparently because of a cerebral vascular problem, and he canceled several commitments for the following weeks, including the September 15 United Nations world summit of state leaders, where he was represented by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin...

...De Villepin argued that it was an improvement on the current situation, whereby "70 per cent of contracts are short-term...

...He had put all his weight behind the document, yet in meetings and debates he did not sound enthusiastic, let alone convincing...

...UMP members fear a replay of the duel that opposed Chirac and Edouard Balladur in 1995...

...It brought to the fore his political inconsistency: While fringe voices on the Right and the Left called for his resignation, the president conceded that further enlargement of the European Union was premature...

...Sarkozy Dueling to Succeed Chirac By Janice Valls-Russell Paris The suspense about whether President Jacques Chirac of France will run for a third five-year mandate in 2007 seems to be over...

...Altogether the outcome weakened Chirac, who had vigorously supported Turkey's candidacy before defending the constitutional treaty...

...The likelihood of a third Chirac mandate was already on the wane when France rejected the proposed European Union (EU) constitutional treaty in a May 29 referendum...

...A recent government study confirmed that the education system, rather than alleviating social differences, continues to reproduce them...

...The gap between rich and poor was cruelly exposed on a scale heretofore inconceivable in a prosperous state, even though the French were aware of the inequalities in the U.S...

...Crippled by the referendum, Chirac apparently decided it was safer to have Sarkozy on the inside, a step perceived as a further sign of his political weakness...

...France's trade imbalance is headed toward a record $24 billion...

...In July the unemployment rate fell to 9.9 per cent, a notch below the symbolic 10 per cent mark...

...Sarkozy's camp reminds everyone that as secretary-general of the Elysée Palace de Villepin persuaded Chirac to dissolve Parliament in 1997 and call the elections that ended his majority...

...De Villepin seems more attached than Sarkozy to the "social" ethics of the neoGaullist movement...

...De Villepin, who spoke after him and won less applause, insisted that "the 2007 elections will be played out on a program, but also necessarily on [our] record...

...The change of style was evident: Out went the good-humored, somewhat bumbling, unassuming man from "la France d'en bas " (downstairs France...

...A study carried out by the Court of Auditors, released September 14, pinpointed inefficiencies in measures implemented under Chirac over the past eight years...

...government's difficulties in coping with the impact of Hurricane Katrina came as a shock in France...

...The prime minister, who had opted for a relatively low profile when he was interior minister, now projects the image of the "good guy" and leaves the ungrateful task of law and orderto Sarkozy...

...Moreover, it is pointed out, the prime minister has never stood for election in his life...

...Even before Chirac's health problems surfaced in September, Sarkozy effectively posed as a youthful alternative to the aging president...

...Between those contracts which are very precarious and what we propose, there is a big difference...

...Making the minimum wage in effect dependent on state contribution puts future governments in a precarious spot...

...Theirrespective clans are already sharpening stiletto phrases...

...And over the past five months, 49 people have died in fires in apartment blocks around Paris and at a hotel where homeless families were lodged by humanitarian organizations...

...They arrived in France three years ago to rejoin Kankou's father, who was living and working legally in France...

...Post offices and primary schools are closing in rural areas, where it is difficult as well to find such vital professionals as doctors and pharmacists...

...The economic reforms he proposes echo those pursued in Britain and the U.S...

...Within three months of taking office, the prime minister announced two measures on the issue that went into effect in August...

...De Villepin is exploring measures to simplify the income tax, reduce it for the middle class, and limit the maximum rate for the highest incomes to 60 per cent...

...The flames laid bare the vulnerabilities of France's social fabric and claimed more victims "than all the terrorist attacks that have hit the capital in a quarter of a century,' noted a journalist in Le Point, a Center-Right weekly...

...The consequent loss of income would be compensated by further privatization of public sectors...

...Members of the opposition wonder if the hard line he has adopted is not intended to discourage potential immigrants and reassure the conservative sector of the electorate...

...How the state plans to finance the bonuses is still unclear, and the trade unions contend employers are being encouraged to keep wages down...

...How long de Villepin and Sarkozy can function in the same government while competing for the UMP's presidential investiture is anyone's guess...

...Similarly, although a tough stand on violence in some city districts is welcome, what has become known as "the Sarkozy method" increasingly worries moderate voters...

...Also at play were worries that, in the event of adoption, European leaders would feel freer to make controversial decisions, such as admitting Turkey to the EU...

...Until now, Sarkozy had instructed the préfets, who represent the government in France's 95 départements, to show leniency in situations like Kankou's...

...People have been alarmed, too, at the police reaction...

...On September 20, addressing UMP members of Parliament, Sarkozy insisted that "no president in France has ever been elected on [the candidate's or his party's] record...

...Indeed, the employers' federation has already made that demand...

...These ranged from unashamed xenophobia— playing on fears about competition from workers in Poland and other new EU member nations—to complaints about inadequate attention to social rights and environmental matters...

...Not all, however, are equally available...

...The new government, though,will be judged on its handling of unemployment...

...De Villepin's second measure doubles (to $1,200) the bonus the state pays those out of work for more than a year who accept low-income jobs...

...France spends 50 to 80 per cent more on health care than Germany or Britain, says the report, and it is estimated that 15 per cent of doctors' visits are unnecessary...

...He is hostile to the 35-hour week, introduced in 2000 under Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin...

...Budgetary restrictions have been imposed throughout the government in a bid to control the national deficit, expected to be 3 per cent of GDP this year...

...Sarkozy recently called for a return to "full employment"—that is, a jobless rate below 5 per cent—within 10 years, a goal de Villepin has termed "realistic...

...His camp has attracted members expelled from the NF executive committee for not showing sufficient allegiance to Le Pen and his entourage...

...They appealed mostly to high-minded principles of freedom and democracy, rather than pragmatic issues close to their constituents' concerns...

...In the other camp, JeanLouis Debré, president of the National Assembly, quipped that one cannot be a minister in the daytime and spend one's evenings undermining government action...

...His line is relatively simple, and his way of putting across ideas is pugnacious and direct...

...In that context, the U.S...

...A first draft of these measures was submitted by François Fillon at Chirac's request before the 2002 presidential election and turned down...

...Disturbingly, police have even been sent into schools to remove children of illegal residents...

...The case of Kankou, a 13-year-old girl facing expulsion to Mali along with her mother, has upset her school friends in the small town near Orleans where she lives...

...The law has been well received in business circles, but trade unions and the Socialist opposition fear it will ultimately be extended to the entire workforce...

...JANICE VALLS-RUSSELL writes regularly for the NL on French and Spanish affairs...

...While some citizens abuse the system, others have insufficient access to it...

...Fillon later served as education minister under Raffarin and, ironically, is close to Sarkozy...

...With his interior minister demanding "change" and a "rupture," de Villepin must learn to live with an irrepressible internal opponent— a prospect that may strain that impeccable smile of his...

...The concern led Jean Daniel, editor of the Center-Left weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, to write: "Our country cannot open its doors to all the distress of the world, but once those in distress are here, we are totally, ideally fraternally, responsible [for their welfare...

...Despite his opposing the options presented by President George W. Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, he avoided phrases that might have been taken as crudely anti-American...

...Closer to home, a symptom of the dangers of too much deregulation was the August 16 crash ofa Colombian plane in Venezuela that killed 152 French citizens of Martinique...

...In the end, Chirac may have done de Villepin a good turn by appointing Sarkozy to the Interior Ministry...

...Memories of the end of Socialist President François Mitterrand's second term being overshadowed by his prostate cancer resurfaced—and suddenly the cards appeared to have been reshuffled...

...Citing the fires as evidence of dangerous housing conditions, they have used this to justify forcing their way into squatter living quarters and rounding up illegal immigrants...

...The homeless, immigrants and students from poor homes are the most vulnerable groups, in spite of universal entitlement to health coverage as well as prevention and information units operating in city centers and on campuses...

...Next, he rejiggered his government...

...The first allows firms employing no more than 20 workers to hire them with a two-year (instead of three-month) trial period before signing an indefinite contract...

...over the past two decades: privatization, deregulating the labor market and encouraging investment, partly through tax rebates for the middle class...

...and half of them last barely a month...

...The object is to make it worthwhile for them to return to the workforce, rather than continue living on handouts...

...Initially it was widely assumed that the change was merely skin-deep, since many ministers stayed on in the government and others made a comeback...

...The Raffarin government introduced a degree of flexibility, allowing people to work overtime or on a flexible schedule during certain periods of the year in agreement with their employer...

...He has committed himself to preserving France's public services while trying to streamline them, recognizing that—at least symbolically— they provide a minimum of social cohesion...

...The French public was painfully reminded that, in spite of his legendary good health and energy, the neo-Gaullist president is 73 years old...

...He celebrated his election with a grand show that seemed very "American" to people here and certainly suggested presidential ambitions...

...It will be hard to argue that today's America offers the right model to follow...

...Jean-Pierre Raffarin was replaced as prime minister by Dominique de Villepin, who had been foreign minister, then interiorminister...

...Sarkozy would eliminate the law...

...Continuity has never been a winning argument...

...Chirac had publicly said he should leave the Cabinet if he won the UMP leadership...

...By contrast, advocates of a No vote put forward visceral—albeit often contradictory—reasons to reject the constitution...

...DE Villepin and Sarkozy are the two men on the Center-Right everyone is watching, and they are warily surveying each other...

...He died before they could obtain a residence permit, and they have been ordered to leave the country...

...Overall, his platform is popular with shopkeepers and industrialists but scares those who want to maintain the social services they see as the key to leveling differences between the rich and poor...

...Chirac's temporary withdrawal from the public eye has also given de Villepin an opportunity to rub shoulders with the world's heads of state, and thus appear as a potential head of state himself...

...The document's long, convoluted text did not help its chances, and attempts to scare voters into believing rejection would endanger the future of Europe backfired...

...Sarkozy does not hide his presidential intentions and never misses an opportunity to appear on television, whether alongside firemen fighting summer blazes in the forests of the South or provocatively hosting his own July 14 garden party in defiance of the president, who traditionally holds a garden party that day...

...But de Villepin has little room to maneuver...

...His experience as foreign minister benefits him as well: Voters remember his speech before the UN Security Council in the run-up to the Iraq war, when he vibrantly defended the need to continue seeking nonmilitary alternatives...

...Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of Chirac's neoGaullist Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), is the new interior minister, a post he held for two years prior to becoming finance minister in 2004...

...in, from the more aristocratic "France d'en haut" (upstairs France), came the cool elegance of the diplomat, tempered by de Villepin's trademark perpetual smile...