Articles related to "France"
Cohabitation in France: Crisis of the Conservatives
Since the start of the "cohabitation" with the Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin (PSF) in 1997, France's Conservatives led by state president Jacques Chirac (RPR) have been in continuous decline. A bottom line was reached now with the election of the EU-Parliament in June, when Chirac's Gaullist Party RPR reached only 12,7 %, its worst result ever. The biggest problem of Chirac's, who is still very popular among the French people, is now the growing party fragmentation in his conservative alliance, where Nationalist and Europhobic forces proved their strength. In the government coalition the Socialists, reaching 22,0 % of consensus, were at least able to consolidate their leadership, although even in the center-left-alliance some minor parties advanced. In view of the next presidential elections in 2002 both sides and both candidates, Chirac and Jospin, could find it now harder to reorganize their forces. All these difficulties seem to confirm the crisis of the French Presidential System, which has lately evidenced its growing tendency towards distributing the two major political offices to two opposing leaders.
france
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lionel
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jospin
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chirac
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de gaulle
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pasqua