France Makes A Right Turn

France's leftist parliament became the latest casualty in Europe's rightward shift with a crushing legislative victory by France's mainstream right.

The results give President Jacques Chirac full control of parliament. He formally reappointed his down-to-earth prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Monday.

The conservatives' surge in Sunday's voting ended the left's five-year grip on the National Assembly and shut the far-right National Front out of the lower house altogether, less than two months after its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked Europe by finishing second to Chirac in a presidential election.

Chirac's newly founded Union for the Presidential Majority and its allies won a commanding 399 seats in the 577-strong Assembly against just 178 for the Socialists and other leftists, who are now outnumbered by more than two to one.

The left, from Communists to Socialists to Greens, won only 171 seats — a stinging blow that put the left in the opposition for the first time in five years. The left held 318 seats in the outgoing parliament.

"The president of the republic has entrusted Jean-Pierre Raffarin with the functions of prime minister again and asked him to form the government," Chirac's office said.

It was a bald statement that conveyed none of the triumph in the Elysee Palace, a home that Chirac seemed in grave danger of losing just a few months ago, amid allegations of sleaze and buoyant popularity ratings for his Socialist presidential rival.

Final results from the voting — marked by a record low turnout of 61 percent — were not expected until Tuesday or Wednesday. They will include results from France's overseas territories.

Re-elected after mass street protests against Le Pen's anti-immigrant policies, Chirac now has a strong hand to cut taxes, ease labor laws and reform pensions after five years of paralyzing "cohabitation" with a left-wing government.

Sunday's elections marked the latest step in the mainstream right's advance across western Europe, where similar parties have ousted leftist administrations in Italy, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands and may do so in Germany in September.

Chirac first appointed the hitherto little-known Raffarin on May 6 to lead an interim government after his re-election at the expense of his previous prime minister, Socialist Lionel Jospin, who resigned when Le Pen edged him out of the presidential race.

Raffarin, whose provincial, common touch came as a breath of fresh air for voters tired of haughty rule by a Parisian elite, met Chirac to offer his resignation in keeping with electoral tradition. But his confirmation came as no surprise.

Officials said he would name a largely unchanged but bigger cabinet on Tuesday. However, European Affairs Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres resigned in a move that was expected because he is being investigated over party funding irregularities.

That was a small reminder of the sleaze that dogged Chirac's first term and which took a back seat during two roller coaster months of double-round presidential and parliamentary elections.

French voters were frustrated by rising crime and a government paralyzed by five years of "cohabitation," the awkward power-sharing arrangement that exists when the president and prime minister are from opposing parties.

"Things are better now, the government will be more plausible, it can get things done," said Gerard Escaish, a right-wing voter as he stood outside a Paris cafe.

A big loser in the election was the extreme-right National Front, which won no seats at all as voters further stamped out a brief surge by its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned the nation by qualifying for last month's presidential run-off but was later crushed by Chirac.

The parliament, meeting in extraordinary session in July, is expected to immediately start pushing through legislation. At the top of the agenda are two new laws to fight rising crime that would strengthen the hand of police and speed up the cumbersome justice system.

Lower taxes, promised by Chirac, pension reform and an increase in defense spending are also on the agenda. The Gaullist Chirac is expected to move cautiously on any privatizing of state-owned companies.

Chirac's team was expected to ease application of the shortened workweek, 35 hours — the flagship legislation of the previous leftist government that Chirac has said he would keep.

"Five Years to Change France" read the headline of the conservative daily Le Figaro. On a more cynical note, the leftist daily Liberation headlined "Five Years Firm," an allusion to the French expression for when a judge hands down a jail sentence.

Socialist Laurent Fabius, a prime minister in the 1980s and now a contender for the party's leadership, could do little more than lament the outcome of the double elections.

"In May, the people of France voted No to the extreme right. Then they voted No to cohabitation. We will rebuild with a program that inspires people," he said on Sunday.

Sunday's parliamentary runoff round ended two months of voting that started and ended with mass apathy via a brief interlude when millions hit the streets to defy Le Pen.

His National Front could not break into parliament in first-past-the-post constituency voting and 39 percent of voters did not bother even to vote on Sunday, a record high.