Jacques Chirac wins by default

摘要

"I have heard and understood your call: that the Republic should live, that the nation should reunite, that politics should change." Jacques Chirac, re-elected president of France on May 5th, chose the right words in his moment of triumph. His margin of victory is the greatest ever in the history of Charles de Gaulle's Fifth Republic-some 82% compared with the 18% of his opponent, Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme-right National Front. Yet just two weeks earlier, in a first round of voting crowded with 16 candidates, Mr Chirac had emerged top with only 19.9% of the vote, a mere three percentage points ahead of Mr Le Pen. In other words, the centre-right Mr Chirac owes his victory not to his traditional supporters but to his traditiqnal, left-wing opponents. "Vote for a crook, not for a fascist" was their rallying cry: for the scandal-tarnished Mr Chirac, not the xenophobic Mr Le Pen. The challenge, therefore, is for Mr Chirac to make his victory real. After a lacklustre first term of seven years as president, can he now use a second term, of five years, to heal the country's social divisions, soothe its fears and restore its trust in the political establishment?