- Title: FRANCE: JACQUES CHIRAC BEGINS CAMPAIGN TO BE RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT.
- Date: 20th February 2002
- Summary: (W6) GARGES LES GONESSE, FRANCE (FEBRUARY 19, 2002) (REUTERS TV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: LOW RENT FLATS IN GARGES LES GONESSE PAN TO MEDIA AND OFFICIALS 0.10 2. MV: FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC ARRIVING AND GREETED BY LOCAL RESIDENTS 0.14 3. LV: WOMEN ON BALCONY 0.19 4. GV/PAN: CHIRAC WALKING ALONG SURROUNDED BY PHOTOGRAPHERS AN
- Embargoed: 7th March 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GARGES LES GONESSE NEAR PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVAEVHR37UL0M6L48AZNT7D7PE6R
- Story Text: President Jacques Chirac has opened the race for the
French presidential election in Garges les Gonesse, a town
with a substantial immigrant population in the northern
suburbs of Paris.
Seizing on public concern, Chirac put law and order at the
heart of his bid for a second term with a "get tough" message
that crime was changing the face of France.
President Jacques Chirac met right-wing supporters and
local officials in Garges les Gonesse on Tuesday (February 19)
as his presidential election campaign began in earnest.
The conservative incumbent's choice of issue on his first
campaign outing was a clear shot across the bows of his main
challenger in the presidential election, Socialist Prime
Minister Lionel Jospin.
Chirac promised that if he wins the election, to be held
over two rounds on April 21 and May 5, he would create a new
internal security ministry, boost the powers of police and the
judiciary, establish neighbourhood courts to try petty
offenders and set up special detention centres for juvenile
delinquents.
The French president was speaking on Tuesday (February 19)
in Garges-les-Gonesse, a suburb north of Paris catapulted to
national prominence last year when a 13-year-old schoolboy
stabbed one of his teachers.
Jospin's government has borne the brunt of popular anxiety
about the rise in delinquency, fuelled by statistics that show
crime jumped by almost eight percent in 2001. Opinion polls
rank law and order as the number one worry for voters.
"Violence is changing the face of our republic," Chirac
said. "It creates fear and undermines the very foundations of
society."
Chirac, as head of state, has remained immune from
investigation in a rash of political corruption scandals
dating from his long years as mayor of Paris until 1995, but
could face questioning if he loses the election. He denies
wrongdoing.
Chirac declared his candidacy last week, stealing a march
on Jospin and apparently boosting his popularity with voters.
One opinion poll on Tuesday by the IPSOS institute for Le
Figaro newspaper and Europe 1 radio showed Chirac leading
Jospin by 25 percent to 20 in a crowded field in the first
round and beating him by 53 percent to 47 in the May 5 runoff.
Another survey, by the BVA institute for Paris Match
magazine, gave Chirac a narrower one point edge over Jospin in
the first round and put them level at 50 percent for the
runoff.
Jospin has yet to announce his challenge, but pressure
will be on him to do so and fight for momentum soon after the
end of the present parliament on Friday.
Legislative elections are set for June, with right and
left hoping for a double victory in the presidential and
parliamentary votes to put an end to the prickly power-sharing
arrangement that Chirac and Jospin have endured since 1997.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None