French economy pushes vote to left
By G. Dunkel
The electoral left in France won a big victory
March 28, winning seats in 21 of 22 mainland regions. Only
Alsace-Lorraine, a small, prosperous and traditionally
conservative region on the German border, voted to keep
President Jacques Chirac's conservative party in control.
The breadth of Chirac's defeat was unex pected, much like
the election results in Spain two weeks earlier. The election
was seen by politicians, analysts and voters as a referendum on
his domestic policies.
Fighting against cuts in education and "pension reform,"
most French teachers spent five to six weeks on strike last
year. Firefighters struck for safety and retirement reforms.
Entertainers who work in France's extensive summer festivals
and theaters struck over cuts in unemployment.
In last year's heat wave, cutbacks in hospital staffing
resulted in the deaths of 15,000 people, according to the
French statistical institute.
Most public employees will now have to work more years
before they can retire with full pensions. The next phase in
the cuts that Chirac's government has planned will force people
to pay more for medical benefits and students to pay a greater
portion of their expenses.
Even though the people said "No!" in the election, Chirac
essentially kept the same team with the same prime
minister.
The Socialist Party, the dominant force in the new
left-leaning coalition, has proclaimed it is not going to go
into the streets to fight.
This isn't going to satisfy French workers, who have a long
tradition of taking their protests to the streets.
Reprinted from the April 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page