With Vote, Hope For Chirac

Fresh from trouncing far-right challenger Jean-Marie Le Pen, French President Jacques Chirac launched his campaign to win June parliamentary elections by naming a fellow conservative as prime minister on Monday.

The announcement came barely an hour after Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin tendered his resignation and that of his government during a 13-minute morning visit to the Elysee Palace offices of Chirac, with whom he spent five years sharing power in an awkward ``cohabitation.''

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, 53, will serve as interim head of a new conservative government that aims to swiftly respond to voter discontent and fears over rising crime. He will also help Chirac try to rally the right to victory in next month's crucial parliamentary elections.

Chirac picked a prime minister from outside the ranks of his own Rally for the Republic party. Raffarin, a member of the Liberal Democracy party, used to be a marketing director and has been largely unknown outside political circles. One of his visions for France is opening its markets to greater free trade.

The announcement was made by presidential spokesman Dominique de Villepin on national television.

Chirac, 69, crushed extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen with an unprecedented 82 percent of the vote in Sunday's election. He won with votes from the left as well as from his mainstream right, portending a tough fight in the legislative elections that will prove the test of his real power.

Chirac had the lowest score of an incumbent president in the April 21 first-round vote when Le Pen stunned the nation with his second-place showing.

"I heard and I understood your call (to ensure) that the Republic lives, that the nation rallies together, that politics change," Chirac said in a victory speech, acknowledging the contribution of the left and the groundswell of discontent that led to an "exceptional" election.

With more than 99 percent of the vote counted, the abstention rate was 19 percent compared to a record 28 percent in the first round. The turnout attested to the mobilization of the electorate in a two-week period of anti-Le Pen protests that culminated Wednesday, May Day, when more than a million people marched across France.

The 73-year-old Le Pen, accused of being racist and anti-Semitic, blasted the "morbid coalition" of right and left that joined in an unprecedented block to defeat him.

"The political conditions under which the second round was held were those of a totalitarian country," Le Pen said, referring to the banding together of politicians, unions and leaders in numerous fields to work toward his defeat.

The far-right leader's support was strong in the southeast, an area that has become home to a large immigrant population. He won more than 27 percent of the votes in that region.

Le Pen, who said last week he would consider any score under 30 percent a failure, vowed his anti-immigration National Front party would be avenged in legislative elections June 9 and 16.

Le Pen's National Front, founded in 1972, has been a thorn in the side of the mainstream right since its strong showing in 1984 European elections.

Now, all eyes were turned to next month's parliamentary vote, called the "third round" by the left.

The worst scenario for Chirac, with a five-year mandate, would be a failure to obtain a majority of the right in the parliamentary vote, forcing him to share power with the left and crippling his ability to act.

Many blame his five years of tense power-sharing with Jospin for the unusual presidential vote, which featured 16 candidates in the first round, seen as a clear sign of French discontent.

Multiplying corruption scandals that tarnished politicians on the left and right, particularly Chirac, proved a symptom of France's political malaise. Several investigating judges want to question Chirac about his alleged involvement in a kickback scheme to fund political parties during his tenure as Paris mayor, from 1977-95, as well as his use of hundreds of thousands of public dollars for personal travel.

Protected by presidential immunity, Chirac was given a new reprieve.

As Chirac targeted the June elections, most of France woke up in a mood of chastened relief for having handed Le Pen a resounding defeat at the ballot box.

"The shame has passed, but it will linger for a while," said 53-year-old Paris baker Alain Brule as he handed out croissants. "France likes to get on its high horse to have a go at other countries over the extreme right, but perhaps we need to look at ourselves more closely."