Juppe throws in the towel to check Left sweep

PARIS, May 27: Having lost its favorite target in France's legislative elections, the Leftist Opposition contends Prime Minister Alain Jupp...

PARIS, May 27: Having lost its favorite target in France’s legislative elections, the Leftist Opposition contends Prime Minister Alain Juppe’s plans to resign will change little about the Right’s plans to govern.Meanwhile, speculation mounted on who would replace Juppe, who said on Monday that he will quit after Sunday’s runoff as a result of the Left’s surprising victory in last weekend’s first round.

President Jacques Chirac was to address the nation on Tuesday night in a bid to recharge the campaign for his governing Conservative coalition, struggling to survive amid record 12.8 percent unemployment.

“Chirac dissolves Juppe,” headlined both the Leftist Daily Liberation and the popular tabloid Le Parisien. Chirac dissolved the national Assembly to call the elections, and Juppe was the next step.

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But the departure of Juppe, who has served since Chirac was elected two years ago, will not modify things much,” Communist leader Robert Hue said on Monday.

Socialist leader Lionel Jospin told Europe 1 Radio on Tuesday that if the right doesn’t know what to do to save the situation, “we know what we want to do”.

Countering the Right’s free-market reform and austerity aimed at spurring the economy, Jospin has proposed youth jobs programs and shorter work weeks with the same pay to spread jobs around.

The Center-Right coalition on Sunday suffered its worst election defeat in nearly four decades, after the Left pounded away at Juppe as the reason for the record jobless rate.

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Leftist parties took 40.6 percent of the first-round vote, while the Right took 36.4 percent, though it remained unclear if they could win enough seats in the runoff and put their differences aside to form a coalition.

“It seemed clear to me that the French couldn’t understand that you can begin a new stage with the same Prime minister,” Juppe said on RTL Radio on Tuesday.

“Juppe said a Leftist victory in the second round is a possible hypothesis but not probable,” adding “a victory by the Right is equally possible, even probable”.

Should the Left win, Chirac will be forced to share power with a socialist Prime Minister. That would surely be Jospin. Such a “cohabitation” could slow France’s bid to join the planned launch of the Euro, the single European currency, in 1999.President Clinton,was asked by a reporter if he would give the French President advice on how to govern with a divided government.“Hey, he still has another election yet,”.