Chirac Conservatives Score in France
French President Jacques Chirac's conservatives headed for a landslide victory in parliamentary elections next week after trouncing the left in Sunday's first round and taming the surge on the far-right, polls said.
The mainstream right's strong showing -- 43.7 percent to 36.8 percent for the left, according to the polling group Ipsos -- meant Chirac can expect unfettered power for the next five years rather than "cohabitation" with the left as in the past.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right, anti-immigrant National Front failed to capitalize on the shock score he secured seven weeks earlier to qualify for the presidential runoff against Chirac, slipping unexpectedly to 11.6 percent from 14.9 percent in 1997.
Most races for the 577 National Assembly seats are due to go to runoffs on June 16, but the polling agencies were already predicting the right would take upwards of 380 seats, with the left under 200, and two seats at best for the National Front.
The results seemed to vindicate Chirac's ploy of rounding up almost all mainstream conservatives into one party and warning against another paralyzing cohabitation with the left, whose vote was spread more thinly among half a dozen rival parties.
"France has decided to give the president a majority," said Francois Fillon, social affairs minister in the interim cabinet Chirac named after his May 5 re-election and one of the few elected outright in his constituency on the first-round vote.
"This shows the best way to combat the extremes is through action," he said, referring to the vigorous crime crackdown and tax cut pledges of the interim administration.
However, national interest has been on soccer, not politics. From newspapers to cafe gossip, France has been obsessed with the torn left thigh of star player Zinedine Zidane, popularly known as "Zizou," and its impact on the defending champions' dismal World Cup performance. The French team has one final chance to save itself in a game with Denmark on Tuesday.
"There has been no campaign. We've only been hearing about Zizou's thigh," said Jean-Louis Maurax, a 61-year-old businessman, speaking outside a relatively empty polling station in Paris.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, named prime minister of a center-right cabinet that has had several weeks to campaign through action in daily government, promised to deliver on all Chirac had promised if the June 16 second round vote confirmed victory.
"The message this evening is favorable and gives confidence but we remain modest," said Raffarin, playing on his image as a humble servant of "grass roots France." "The French people are tired of polemics. They are asking for political efficiency."
Projections for second round results from the main polling agencies, Sofres, Ipsos and CSA, gave Chirac's conservatives winning 380-440 seats, the left, 134-191 and the extreme right between zero and two seats.