An
immediate
dramatic
change
wrought
by
Chirac
was
the
abolition
of
conscription
,
to
give
France
more
efficient
and
effective
armed
forces.
The
move
provoked
impassioned
responses
by
the
PCF
and
other
left-wingers
for
whom
conscription
represented
social
levelling,
the
useful
acquisition
of
skills
and
the
revolutionary
spirit
expressed
in
the
words
of
the
national
anthem
-
"Aux
Armes,
Citoyens
?"
Another
early
decision
taken
by
President
Chirac
was
to
delay
signing
the
Nuclear
Non-Proliferation
Treaty
until
France
had
carried
out
a
new
series
of
nuclear
tests
in
the
South
Pacific.
This
provoked
almost
universal
condemnation
(Britain
and
China
being
the
exceptions),
boycotts
of
French
goods,
attacks
on
French
embassy
buildings
in
Australia
and
New
Zealand,
plus
all-out
riots
in
Tahiti.
Chirac
and
most
of
the
French
press
gloried
in
Gallic
isolation,
with
no
qualms
at
the
French
navy
capturing
Greenpeace's
Rainbow
Warrior
II
,
almost
ten
years
to
the
day
after
the
bombing
of
Rainbow
Warrior
I
in
Auckland
harbour
by
French
secret
service
agents.
Chirac's
new
prime
minister
was
Alain
Juppé
,
a
clever
and
clinical
technocrat.
It
was
down
to
him
to
square
the
circle
of
Chirac's
election
pledges
of
job
creation,
maintaining
the
value
of
pensions
and
welfare
benefits,
reducing
the
number
of
homeless,
tax
cuts,
a
continuing
strong
franc
and
a
reduction
in
the
budget
deficit
to
stay
on
course
for
European
monetary
union.
However,
the
Banque
de
France's
control
over
interest
rates
and
its
commitment
to
the
overvalued
franc
made
Chirac's
election
promises
to
reduce
unemployment
difficult
to
fulfil.
Not
only
was
the
French
workforce
terrified
about
job
security
and
living
standards,
but
French
businesses
were
also
up
in
arms
at
the
cost
of
borrowing
and
the
uncompetitiveness
of
their
exports,
leading
to
an
epidemic
of
bankruptcies
through
the
late
1990s.
Even
the
indebted
state-owned
defence
and
electronics
giant
Thomson
was
put
up
for
sale
and
its
multimedia
arm
offered
to
the
Korean
company
Daewoo
for
a
symbolic
1F.
People
were
scandalized
and
the
deal
was
retracted,
though
Thomson
was
still
sold,
raising
doubts
about
the
government's
commitment
to
retaining
control
over
strategic
industries.
In
a
television
broadcast
in
October
1995,
Chirac
announced
that
rigorous
economic
measures
to
meet
the
criteria
for
European
monetary
union
would
have
to
take
priority
over
social
issues.
Juppé
then
announced
dramatic
changes
in
social
security
provision
and
a
"downsizing"
of
the
state-owned
railways,
sparking
off
the
strikes
of
November
and
December
1995.
Students,
teachers
and
nurses,
workers
in
the
transport,
energy,
post
and
telecommunications
industries,
bank
clerks
and
civil
servants
took
to
the
streets
with
the
strong
support
of
private-sector
employees
struggling
to
get
to
work.
With
five
million
people
out
over
a
period
of
24
days,
it
was
the
strongest
show
of
protest
in
France
since
May
1968.
Though
the
slogan
was
Tous
ensembles
("Everyone
together"),
and
people
were
united
in
their
opposition
to
arrogant,
elitist
politicians,
their
false
election
promises
and
the
austerity
measures
emanating
from
the
free-market
philosophy,
there
were
no
united
positive
demands
from
the
protesters,
who
ranged
from
working-class
Front
National
supporters
to
middle-class
Gaullists
to
Communist
trade
unionists.
The
idea
was
propagated
that
Germany
was
responsible
for
imposing
monetary
union.
As
the
government
imposed
increasingly
severe
austerity
measures
to
meet
the
convergence
criteria
for
a
European
single
currency,
views
on
Europe
felt
the
wind
of
change.
In
the
1995
winter
strikes,
many
protesters
said
that
a
repeat
Maastricht
referendum
would
show
a
clear
majority
against,
and
by
1996
even
senior
UDF
politicians
were
beginning
to
question
the
commitment
to
monetary
union
at
any
price.
Juppé
promised
to
clean
up
corruption
and
was
almost
immediately
embroiled
in
a
scandal
involving
his
subsidized
luxury
flat
in
Paris.
Accusations
of
cover-ups
and
perversion
of
the
course
of
justice
followed,
punctuated
by
revelations
of
illegal
funding
of
election
campaigns,
politicians
taking
bribes
and
dirty
money
changing
hands
during
privatizations.
In
the
past,
politicians
feathering
their
own
nests
never
roused
much
public
anger,
but
ordinary
people,
faced
with
job
insecurity
and
falling
living
standards,
were
now
becoming
disgusted
by
the
behaviour
of
the
"elites".
Even
the
normally
obsequious
right-wing
press
asked
questions
about
the
judiciary's
independence,
something
Chirac
had
promised
to
uphold
in
his
election
manifesto.
The
consequences
were
twofold:
a
widening
of
the
gulf
between
the
governors
and
the
governed,
which
was
one
of
the
key
themes
of
the
1995
strikes;
and
a
boost
to
the
Front
National
's
popularity
in
the
lead-up
to
the
elections.
Municipal
elections
in
June
1995
gave
the
Front
National
control
of
three
towns,
including
the
major
port
of
Toulon.
In
1996,
a
rare
pact
between
Gaullists
and
Socialists
prevented
Jean-Pierre
Stirbois
from
becoming
the
fourth
FN
mayor.
The
French
constitution
prevented
FN
town
halls
from
fully
carrying
out
their
promised
racial
discrimination
in
housing,
social
services,
etc,
but
local
organizations,
particularly
those
dealing
with
social
integration,
gay
rights,
AIDS
support,
feminism,
contemporary
art
or
the
Jewish
or
Muslim
communities
-
lost
all
their
funding.
The
Algerian
bomb
attacks
,
which
rocked
Paris
in
the
mid-1990s,
fuelled
racism,
added
to
the
general
feelings
of
insecurity,
and
diminished
public
confidence
in
the
government
as
guardians
of
law
and
order.
On
the
Right,
Giscard
used
the
potent
word
"invasion"
and
said
that
citizenship
should
be
based
on
blood
ties,
not
on
place
of
birth.
Chirac
talked
of
the
"noise
and
smell"
of
immigrants,
and
a
UDF
senator
compared
the
four
million
immigrants
in
France
to
the
German
occupation.
All
of
which
boosted
the
confidence
of
Jean-Marie
Le
Pen
and
of
the
home
affairs
minister,
Charles
Pasqua
,
who
reintroduced
random
identity
checks,
took
away
the
automatic
entitlement
to
French
citizenship
of
those
born
in
France
and
made
it
far
harder
for
legal
immigrants'
families,
asylum-seekers
and
students
to
enter
France.
Around
250,000
people
living
and
working
in
France
had
their
legal
status
removed.
In
March
1996
three
hundred
Malian
immigrants,
many
of
them
failed
asylum-seekers,
sought
refuge
in
a
Paris
church,
and
became
known
as
the
"sans-papiers"
.
On
the
eve
of
the
International
Day
Against
Racism,
they
were
forcibly
evicted
by
truncheon-wielding
riot
police
with
the
complicity
of
the
local
bishop
and
the
curé
of
the
church.
In
August
ten
immigrants
from
African
countries,
who
had
all
legally
worked
and
paid
taxes
in
France,
went
on
hunger
strike
in
another
Paris
church
(this
time
with
the
priest's
support)
against
their
deportation
.
Similar
protests
took
place
in
other
times
and
cities.
In
each
case
police
action
was
swift
and
brutal.
Trade
unions,
intellectuals
and
human
rights
groups
denounced
the
government,
which
responded
by
announcing
that
three
planes
a
month
would
be
chartered
to
expel
illegal
immigrants.
The
Loi
Debré
was
proposed
so
that
all
visiting
foreign
nationals'
arrival
and
departure
dates
be
notified,
a
law
based
on
one
passed
during
the
Vichy
regime.
A
wave
of
protest
marches
ensued.
An
amended
version
was
still
passed
in
March
1997,
which
the
entire
majority
right-wing
assembly
voted
for,
and
the
left-wing
minority
voted
against.
The
fate
of
immigrants
and
their
French
descendants
was
never
so
precarious.
Fury
and
frustration
at
discrimination,
assault,
abuse
and
economic
deprivation
erupted
into
battles
on
the
street.
Several
young
blacks
died
at
the
hands
of
the
police,
while
the
right-wing
media
revelled
in
images
of
violent
Arab
youths.
Two
hundred
French
Muslims
arrested
on
suspicion
of
involvement
with
the
Algerian
bomb
attacks
went
on
hunger
strike
to
protest
their
innocence.
Racist
assaults
became
more
common,
and
xenophobic
opinions
became
accepted
platitudes.
In
view
of
such
attitudes
it
seems
ironic
that
in
1996
France
called
for
military
intervention
in
Zaire
-
however,
this
was
motivated
less
out
of
humanitarian
concern
than
for
fear
that
Americans
were
taking
over
a
traditional
French
sphere
of
influence,
with
the
concomitant
threat
of
English
gradually
replacing
French
across
Central
Africa.
But
the
overriding
opposition
to
the
government
,
and
to
the
political
elite
in
general,
came
from
the
daily
impact
of
economic
policies
on
people's
lives.
Wages
in
former
state-owned
industries
now
in
the
hands
of
multinationals
plummeted,
deregulation
led
to
deteriorating
working
conditions,
and
unemployment
soared
from
2.4
million
in
1986
to
3.4
million
(over
12
percent
of
the
workforce)
in
1996.
Taking
into
account
young
people
palmed
off
with
training
schemes
and
older
people
forced
into
early
retirement,
the
true
figure
was
close
to
five
million.
Six
million
people
were
living
on
or
below
the
poverty
line
with
at
least
another
six
million
teetering
on
the
edge
of
poverty
.
Furthermore,
France
experienced
negative
growth
in
1996,
taking
it
to
the
brink
of
a
deflationary
spiral.
Some
politicians,
for
the
first
time,
called
into
question
the
strong
franc
policy,
while
the
French
public
lost
faith
in
any
politician's
ability
to
manage
the
economy
and
showed
considerable
sympathy
for
the
strikes.
Even
the
bully
boys
in
Chirac
and
Juppé's
own
party,
Séguin
and
Pasqua,
started
stirring
trouble.
Amazingly,
Juppé
survived
this
"winter
of
discontent",
abandoning
some
proposals
and
putting
others
on
hold.
A
new
tax
to
pay
off
the
social
security
deficit
was
imposed,
and
cuts
in
the
health
service
went
ahead.
More
strikes
and
protests
were
held
in
1996,
but
the
three
main
trade
unions
(which
in
France
are
organized
around
political
allegiance
rather
than
occupation)
returned
to
bickering
amongst
themselves,
and
Juppé
was
careful
not
to
provoke
public-sector
workers.
In
April
1997,
Chirac
unexpectedly
dissolved
the
parliament
and
called
early
elections
for
May
of
that
year,
which
had
been
due
the
following
March.
Even
though
Juppé
announced
his
resignation
whatever
the
outcome,
Chirac
spectacularly
lost
his
gamble
when
the
Socialists
were
elected.
The
Left
was
back
in
force
with
a
strong
majority,
and
the
right-wing
parties
got
their
lowest
score
since
1958.
There
was
a
new
cohabitation
.
Lionel
Jospin
took
over
as
France's
prime
minister
with
election
promises
of
job
creation
and
economic
growth.
He
immediately
set
about
pursuing
a
strong
pro-European
policy
despite
members
of
the
Communist
party
being
in
the
coalition.
Indeed,
France,
along
with
Germany
and
Spain,
was
one
of
the
only
countries
to
reach
the
European
Monetary
Union
near-target
deficit.
However,
for
all
of
the
major
parties
the
last
few
years
have
been
characterized
above
all
by
scandal
and
popular
dissaffection
-
encouraging
popular
apathy
towards
traditional
institutions
and
increasing
interest
in
alternative
forms
of
political
expresssion.
The
far-right
Front
National
was
the
first
to
suffer,
beginning
in
1998,
when
Le
Pen
managed
to
alienate
himself
from
the
political
scene
by
assaulting
and
punching
a
female
Socialist
candidate,
who
was
running
against
his
daughter
in
the
April
1998
National
Assembly
elections,
whilst
the
cameras
were
rolling.
Consequently,
he
was
temporarily
stripped
of
his
civic
rights,
including
the
ability
to
vote
or
run
as
a
candidate
in
any
election.
In
order
to
maintain
his
public
influence
and
stature
in
the
party,
he
had
his
wife
stand
in
his
place.
This
move
sparked
a
revolt
within
the
party.
Bruno
Mégret,
Le
Pen's
lieutenant,
who
had
seen
his
own
chance
to
take
the
reins
of
the
party
when
his
master
was
banned
from
politics,
was
infuriated
when
Le
Pen
passed
him
over,
and
he
set
the
wheels
for
a
party
revolt
in
motion.
(Mégret,
incidentally,
was
scarcely
in
a
position
to
complain,
given
that
he
himself
had
nominated
his
own
politically
inexperienced
wife
to
stand
in
the
mayoral
race
of
the
town
of
Vitrolles
in
1997
-
a
contest
she
won,
thanks
to
the
left-wing
incumbent's
own
scandal-tainted
record.)
Mégret's
machinations
only
served
to
divide
the
party,
and
with
the
municipal
elections
of
April
1998,
the
extreme
right
suffered
a
number
of
reversals,
including
the
loss
of
their
former
bastion
of
Toulon;
in
a
pattern
that
was
becoming
all
too
familiar,
the
former
mayor
of
that
town,
Le
Chavallier,
had
been
embroiled
in
his
own
legal
difficulties
and
had
nominated
his
wife
to
stand
in
his
place,
provoking
the
indignation
of
the
electorate.
In
July
1998,
the
seat
was
pulled
out
from
under
the
Front
National,
when
France's
World
Cup
soccer
victory,
powered
by
a
team
made
up
to
a
great
extent
of
immigrants,
prompted
a
wave
of
popular
patriotism
which
ran
across
the
colour
barrier.
Even
Le
Pen
couldn't
think
of
anything
to
say
as
"Une
France
tricolore
et
multicolore"
was
celebrated
with
festivities
all
over
the
country,
and
the
July
14
weekend
was
a
lavish
multi-ethnic
event.
The
soccer
final
was
not
the
end
of
Le
Pen
and
company's
streak
of
bad
luck
-
the
FN
saw
its
logo
temporarily
hijacked
in
1999
when
the
satirical
weekly
magazine
Charlie
Hebdo
got
wind
that
the
copyright
had
expired
and
registered
it
for
its
own
humorous
ends,
though
the
Front
National
managed
to
reclaim
it
after
a
court
battle.
In
the
meantime,
Mégret's
inability
to
wrest
control
of
the
party
had
prompted
him
to
splinter
off,
trying
to
approach
the
moderate
right
parties
by
laying
on
a
more
centrist
veneer.
This
shallow
gambit
failed,
serving
only
to
distance
his
own
extreme-right
followers.
After
the
divorce
between
Le
Pen
and
Mégret
had
become
formal
and
Charlie
Hebdo
had
been
disposed
of,
the
two
fought
for
the
right
to
use
the
Front
National
name
and
symbol.
In
the
end
Le
Pen
triumphed,
and
Mégret's
party
now
runs
under
the
banner
of
Mouvement
National
Républicain
.
Neither
group
did
well
in
the
1999
European
elections,
however,
where
their
aggregate
popular
vote
dropped
from
16
to
10
percent.
Nor
has
the
moderate
right
fared
much
better.
In
1998
the
conservative
Paris
mayor
Jean
Tiberi
was
implicated
in
a
scandal
involving
subsidized
real-estate
and
salaries
for
fake
jobs.
This
reflected
badly
on
Chirac,
recalling
the
string
of
scandals
in
the
Mairie
de
Paris
that
took
place
whilst
he
was
mayor.
However,
the
revelation
that
Tiberi's
wife
earned
money
for
a
fake
job
led
to
a
similar
revelation
about
Jospin.
In
a
cynical
effort
to
whitewash
the
scandals,
president
and
prime
minister
publicly
united
to
impress
upon
the
nation
that
France's
real
problems
did
not
lie
with
these
tabloid
issues,
which
were
better
left
forgotten.
But
worse
was
yet
to
come
for
the
president,
when
in
September
2000
a
journalist
released
a
video-taped
confession
of
the
deceased
RPR
financier
and
former
ally
of
Chirac,
Jean-Claude
Méry,
disclosing
an
influence-peddling
scandal
leading
directly
to
the
president's
office.
The
government
reeled,
lashing
out
with
a
judicial
suit
against
the
journalist
and
feverishly
attempting
to
cut
the
trail
before
it
could
be
traced
back
personally
to
Chirac.
In
the
midst
of
this,
a
national
referendum
held
to
determine
whether
the
presidential
mandate
should
be
limited
to
five
years
(it
was
decided
in
favour)
was
met
by
unprecedented
voter
apathy.
Furthermore,
progressive
policies
implemented
by
the
government
in
the
same
year,
including
the
legislation
of
a
35-hour
working
week
and
a
50:50
gender
quota
for
representatives
of
political
parties,
encountered
strenuous
vocal
resistance
-
this
time
from
elements
on
the
moderate
right.
The
influences
scandal
provoked
a
serious
fall
in
popularity
for
the
president's
party
and
a
commensurate
gain
by
Jospin
and
the
Socialists,
who
redoubled
their
efforts
to
force
Chirac
to
an
early
2001
election.
As
the
new
millennium
dawned,
Jospin
may
have
been
smiling
-
economic
growth
hit
record
levels
in
2000,
at
three
percent
-
but
he
had
his
own
worries,
too.
Unemployment
remained
a
worrying
problem
-
official
figures
estimated
it
at
ten
percent
of
the
population
-
despite
numerous
job
creation
schemes,
and
the
government
was
suffering
from
a
series
of
scandals.
His
cabinet
had
sustained
a
number
of
high-profile
resignations,
including
employment
minister
Martine
Aubray
(author
of
the
35-hour
working
week),
internationally
respected
finance
minister
Dominique
Strauss-Kahn
(caught
up
in
a
party
funding
scandal)
and
former
prime
minister
Chevènement
(in
opposition
to
Jospin's
plans
for
Corsica).
Indeed,
the
Corsican
problem
had
been
the
most
thorny
issue
that
Jospin
had
faced.
At
first
he
tried
to
counter
the
island's
violent
separatist
movement
with
a
low-level
"dirty
war",
but
later
he
shifted
emphasis
to
negotiations
for
regional
autonomy,
an
approach
which
provoked
the
ire
of
the
Right
-
a
no-confidence
motion
was
tabled
in
1999
against
Jospin's
attempts
at
compromise
-
and
hopefulness
among
other
regional
nationalists
(including
Alsatians,
Bretons
and
Basques).
If
Jospin's
proposal
succeeds
(which
it
will
not
do
if
Chirac
can
help
it),
the
island
will
have
limited
legislative
power
by
2004.
Jospin's
image
was
also
hurt
by
comments
he
made
on
a
state
visit
to
Israel
in
1999,
when
he
characterized
Hezbollah's
campaign
to
free
southern
Lebanon
as
"terrorist"
-
Arab
groups
were
outraged,
and
France's
cultivated
reputation
as
a
paternalistic
formal
colonial
power
in
the
Middle
East
was
seriously
damaged.
Nor
was
the
Socialists'
popularity
aided
by
the
trial
in
March
1999
of
the
Mitterrand-era
cabinet
ministers
involved
in
the
tragic
tainted
blood
scandal
of
the
mid-1980s.
Through
alleged
stalling
the
government
at
the
time
failed
to
implement
blood-screening,
with
the
result
that
by
the
time
of
the
trial
four
thousand
transfusion
recipients
had
contracted
AIDS.
The
court
doled
out
acquittals
and
suspended
sentences
for
the
three
main
defendants,
including
former
prime
minister
Laurent
Fabius;
needless
to
say
the
verdict
was
greeted
with
outrage
by
the
victims
and
their
families
and
a
wave
of
public
cynicism.
More
skeletons
tumbled
out
of
the
Socialists'
Mitterrand
closet,
when
Jean-Christophe
Mitterrand,
the
former
president's
son
was
arrested
on
criminal
charges
in
December
2000.
Mitterrand
fils
,
who
was
known
during
his
father's
presidency
as
"Papa
m'a
dit"
("Daddy
told
me")
and
"Monsieur
Africa",
was
a
powerful
behind-the-scenes
mover
for
the
Socialist
regime's
less
salubrious
African
policies,
which
included
buying
illegal
gems
from
repressive
and
murderous
African
regimes,
selling
arms
and
laundering
money.
On
the
popular
front,
French
reaction
against
American
economic
and
cultural
domination
found
an
unlikely
figurehead
in
José
Bové
,
a
political
activist
and
farmer
enraged
at
US
sanctions
against
European
products
(like
Roquefort
cheese),
who
publicly
vandalized
a
McDonald's
restaurant
in
Millau
in
1999.
Quickly
converted
into
a
popular
hero,
his
actions
fanned
the
flames
of
anti-hamburger
indignation
and
encouraged
grass-roots
environmentalists
and
agricultural
protectionists
to
band
together
against
America,
environmental
damage
and
mal
bouffe
(junk
food).
More
violent
acts
followed,
including
the
bombing
of
a
McDonald's
drive-through
in
Brittany
in
August
1999,
in
which
a
22-year-old
employee
was
killed.
At
his
trial
in
September
2000,
Bové
received
a
very
light
sentence
for
the
affair
(serving
only
three
months
despite
a
prior
record
of
civil
disobedience).
Ironically,
the
media-conscious
Bové,
who
portrays
himself
as
the
champion
of
the
Gallic
agriculteur,
was
raised
in
the
US
by
expat
French
academics
and
began
his
rural
career
only
shortly
before
all
the
trouble
began.
Elsewhere
in
2000
there
were
strikes
early
in
the
year
involving
teachers
and
civil
servants
opposed
to
government
plans
to
modernize
and
streamline
their
sectors.
Then,
when
fuel
prices
escalated
in
October,
taxi-drivers
and
truckers
in
France
hit
the
streets
in
protest,
disrupting
highway
flow
and
fuel
distribution,
and
temporarily
paralysing
the
country;
their
example
led
to
similar
actions
across
Europe.
As
the
year
closed,
Bové's
ruminations
on
the
dangers
of
factory
farming
seemed
all
the
more
poignant
as
mad
cow
disease
(BSE)
began
to
appear
in
the
nation's
cattle
stock.
All
of
this
made
for
a
tumultuous
entry
into
the
new
millennium.
Jospin
and
the
Socialists
seemed
destined
to
gain
on
their
conservative
rivals
in
the
next
round
of
elections
even
if
only
by
dint
of
the
moderate
Right's
inability
to
keep
a
lid
on
public
revelations
of
its
own
corruption.
Whatever
weaknesses
Jospin's
patchwork
"plural
Left"
may
have
had,
the
centrifugal
forces
which
were
fragmenting
the
Right
were
far
more
serious,
and
Jospin
had
gained
appeal
among
the
middle
class
by
establishing
himself
as
someone
who
could
undertake
reform
while
reining
in
radical
Left
reaction.
The
far
Right,
always
a
minority
and
now
divided,
seemed
to
be
fading
out,
as
their
xenophobic
rantings
rang
increasingly
hollow
in
the
pluralistic
European
federation.
Ironically,
in
view
of
the
collapse
of
Communism
in
eastern
Europe,
the
party
which
seemed
destined
to
gain
the
most
was
the
French
Communist
Party,
which
had
enjoyed
a
resurgence
in
its
traditional
home
of
the
south,
and
whose
leader,
Jean-Claude
Gayssot,
at
the
time
minister
of
transport
and
housing,
was
hailed
universally
as
the
most
competent
member
of
the
cabinet.
