IV.

Second Term as President

Chirac gained the greatest share of the votes in the first round of the 2002 presidential election, held in April. He entered the run-off in May with the National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, a surprise runner-up in the poll. Chirac was comfortably re-elected president having attracted the left’s anti-Le Pen vote. The five-year period of cohabitation between the centre-right president and the centre-left prime minister ended when Jospin resigned after the election. Chirac was further bolstered by the success of centre-right parties in the June parliamentary elections. The Union pour la Majorité Presidentielle (UMP), a coalition of groups supporting Chirac, won an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Following the election, he asked the interim prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, to form an administration. During the 2002 Bastille Day celebrations, an assassination attempt was made on Chirac as he reviewed soldiers in an open-top Jeep. He was unhurt in the incident. The would-be assassin, Maxime Brunerie, was believed to have been acting alone, despite his connections with extreme right-wing groups. Chirac proved himself a leading critic of the aggressive efforts of the US administration to secure the disarmament of Iraq, asserting in March 2003 that France, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would veto any resolution authorizing war. This stance contributed to the warm reception Chirac received in Algeria the same month, when he became the first French president to visit the country since its independence in 1962. In January 2004 Juppé, regarded as Chirac’s chosen successor as president, was one of 21 defendants found guilty of overseeing the illegal payment of RPR workers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Juppé was the party’s secretary-general. Although the accusations were levelled at close associates of Chirac, the president himself has remained protected by the immunity from prosecution that accompanies the office.

The regional elections held in March 2004 delivered another blow to Chirac’s standing. The UMP was left trailing the Socialists in almost all areas of France, and Raffarin’s government offered its resignation. Chirac reappointed Raffarin, however, as head of a new government, which remained committed to a programme of public sector reform aimed at reducing the country’s stubbornly high budget deficit. In July, Chirac announced that France would hold a referendum on whether to support the proposed constitution for the European Union, drawn up by a convention under Giscard d’Estaing. The campaign was hard fought, and Chirac staked a great deal of his authority on its success, making three broadcasts to the nation appealing for voters to support the constitution. However, the increasing unpopularity of both Chirac and the Raffarin government contributed to the eventual rejection of the constitution when the vote was held in May 2005. Raffarin subsequently resigned, and Chirac controversially appointed Dominique de Villepin, a close ally who had served as a minister in Raffarin’s government but was not an elected member of the legislature, as the new prime minister.

In March 2006 Villepin’s government ran into difficulties when it attempted to introduce legislation liberalizing employment laws for those under the age of 26. The law provoked massive, student-led demonstrations across France. Chirac appeared on television to make a national address, announcing some concessions on the law. However, these failed to assuage the anxieties that had produced the demonstrations, and they did not cease until the law had been withdrawn—a severe blow to both President Chirac and his government.

In May 2007 the UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, a former protégé of Chirac but more recently a political rival, defeated the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in the election to succeed to the presidency.