Chirac keeps premier, orders Cabinet shuffle
PARIS -- Stung by a sharp public rebuke in Sunday's regional elections, President Jacques Chirac decided yesterday to retain his unpopular prime minister, but ordered him to form a new government that will be unveiled today.
The prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, left smiling from Elysee Palace yesterday morning after a 75-minute meeting with Chirac, during which Raffarin submitted his resignation and that of his government. In that session, Chirac "named Jean-Pierre Raffarin prime minister and charged him with forming a new government," a palace statement said.
A Cabinet shake-up had been widely expected since Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, or UMP, suffered a stunning defeat in Sunday's elections, with the opposition Socialists and their allies winning 21 of 22 regional councils in metropolitan France. National results indicated that the Socialists and their allies had a combined 50 percent of the vote, compared with 37 percent for Chirac's party.
The results were seen as a widespread public backlash against the Raffarin government's ambitious reform agenda, aimed at making the French economy more efficient by reining in a soaring public deficit. So far, a pension reform element of that package, passed last year, will force most public sector employees to work more years before they can retire with full pensions. The next phase will try to contain spiraling public health and education costs by having patients pay more for some benefits and forcing students to pay more for a part of their education expenses.
These reforms have provoked a series of disruptive strikes and street demonstrations from health care workers, teachers, firefighters, government-funded researchers, even part-time performers protesting proposed cuts in their unemployment benefits.
Socialist leaders criticized Chirac's decision to retain Raffarin. They said Sunday's election results clearly indicate that the reform agenda needs to be curtailed and more emphasis placed on creating employment. But Raffarin and other UMP leaders have said since Sunday that the reforms would continue because they are needed to retool the economy.
