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Monday, 17 June, 2002, 10:34 GMT 11:34 UK
French press in delight and despair
Centre-right supporters are in jubilant mood
The right-leaning daily, Le Figaro, tries to conceal its satisfaction with the Frency election result under a mask of disbelief.
The paper believes the auguries are good for the new prime minister, Jean Pierre Raffarin. His conservative predecessor, Edouard Balladur, in 1993 had a huge majority but ran out of time. The last short-lived conservative prime minister, Alain Juppe, tried to do too much, too quickly. Tears What prompts delight in Le Figaro, prompts despair in Liberation - the newspaper of the left. "A five year sentence," is its headline. The paper's founder, Serge July, argues that the result was less an endorsement of the policies of the right, more an overwhelming rejection of the left.
Picking over the rejection of the Socialists, the newspapers all alight on the tear-stained face of Martine Aubry. She was the employment minister who brought in the 35-hour limit on the working week. Her red-rimmed, swollen eyes squint from a number of photographs.
She put defeat down to the poor and the excluded who thought that the Socialists hadn't done enough for them. Her voice choked and she ran to find refuge in the toilets followed by a herd of photographers and cameramen. Her parting words: "I never thought this would be so tough." Anti-cohabitation mood The centre-left Le Monde saw the poor turnout as one reason for the Socialists' poor showing.
The financial daily, La Tribune, said a key factor was the French dissatisfaction with "cohabitation" - the strained coexistence of a conservative president and Socialist prime minister for the last five years. "The French - at least those who voted - want no more cohabitation," the paper said. "What they expect is first and foremost a government which believes in the merits of its programme. It must fulfil its promises without delay and outline clearly its longer-term plans."
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