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Thursday, 20 June, 2002, 09:27 GMT 10:27 UK
French elections: Your reaction
President Jacques Chirac's centre-right coalition has won an overwhelming victory in the French elections.
The victory marks a significant blow for the French president's opponents on the left and sends Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front back to the political margins. The French president, who begins assembling his government on Monday, has pledged to deliver large tax cuts, streamline the civil service, reform pensions and combat crime. The UMP alliance won an overall majority with more than 392 seats in the national assembly, with 12 of the 577 constituencies yet to declare, while the Socialists and other left-wing parties won just 173. The National Front failed to take a single seat. What is your reaction to the French election results? Do you think Mr Chirac's government can deliver on its promises? How significant is the National Front's defeat? This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
Your reaction
Ian, UK
Doesn't surprise me at all. After years of heavy socialist influence, the French people are sick of being overtaxed, underemployed, and unable to compete with the big boys because of crippling labour laws. This "shift" to the right is just part of a natural cycle for free and democratic nations. America was ready for a change too after 8 years of Bill Clinton.
It is time for France and the UK to lead the world to a new democratic model. The old democratic systems are tired and corrupt. A fresh and modern look at democracy is needed if we are to engage the electorate and keep the extremists at bay
Chirac's election is excellent news for France. The socialists, have further weakened the economy, as they invariably do, with well meaning, but naive, labour laws. Chirac now needs to be brave and "do a Thatcher" by leading EU reform, in labour laws which have become too restrictive - do you think Marks and Spencer will be rushing back to invest in France without radical change? Tax cuts provide an incentive to work and create real jobs which socialist protectionism always promises, but equally always fails to deliver.
It follows the general trend towards making corporations and globalization first, people last. Trans-national corporations now control all western governments. Ordinary people need to take back the power to control governments and to control corporations.
A couple years back I had a boss who moved his entire company from France to the USA basically because French Socialist policies (and EU bureaucracy) made the concept of "growth" for a start up company as he said "nearly impossible." He didn't want to move, but reality was self evident. I shall shed no tears for the downfall of the French Socialists, good riddance.
M Crosland, The Netherlands The French right's victory is due to people's fears of getting Jean Marie Le Pen elected. But in the end right-wing parties all over the world follow the same bankrupt policies of giving tax cuts to the rich, and reducing public expenditure by cutting social spending. This is hardly what France needs today, and unless Chirac can change some fundamental assumptions of the right-wing view of the world, he too will be a failure.
The country needs this new government. On an economic level, France is one of the most backward nations in the EU. The socialist government enforced a law preventing big firms from dismissing workers thus minimising France's competitiveness. The French right wing has nothing to do with the British Conservative Party. The French right wing wants to preserve our social security, our public transports but also wants France to be a modern nation, definitively liberating our nation from the Socialist trend that has been so strong and destructive for French employment over the last 20 years.
So terrified of electing a fascist, France has chosen a man that many regard as less than honest for president. French workers have my sympathy. They have just voted for job cuts on a massive scale, just as Britain did with Thatcher. We are still paying for that mistake. Fortunately, French politics has no more international relevance than French football!
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