- Title: FRANCE: FRANCE VOTED IN THE FINAL ROUND OF LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS
- Date: 16th June 2002
- Summary: (W4) PARIS, FRANCE (16 JUNE 2002) (REUTERS) SV MAYOR OF PARIS BERTRAND DELANOE (PRONOUNCED: DELLA-NOH-EH) ARRIVING TO VOTE SV/MCU/CU OF BERTRAND DELANOE VOTING/BALLOT BOX (4 SHOTS) MCU MAYOR OF PARIS BERTRAND DELANOE SAYING: "Democracy needs diversity, and that everyone's ideas can be expressed and work together towards a common interest. I do not want to say more than this, the French take their vote and I respect this moment when it's not the campaign fights that count but the calmness and the fre edom of choice." CU CAMPAIGN POSTERS FOR PATRICK DEVEDJIAN SV OF RPR (GAULLIST) PARTY CANDIDATE PATRICK DEVEDJIAN VOTING (2 SHOTS) MCU (French) RPR (GAULLIST) PARTY CANDIDATE PATRICK DEVEDJIAN SAYING: "The left is very discouraged after losing its leader with the hasty departure of its leader Lionel Jospin. It is also discouraged because its programme was rejected during the presidential election and today it finds itself totally disarmed in the campaign." SLV/SV OF LEADER OF THE NATIONAL FRONT JEAN MARIE LE PEN VOTING (2 SHOTS) MCU (French) LEADER OF THE NATIONAL FRONT JEAN MARIE LE PEN SAYING: "The sky is beautiful, and I must admit that I had to force myself to fulfill my duties as a citizen. I came to vote, anyway, even if I do not have a candidate." SLV JEAN MARIE LE PEN LEAVING POLLING STATION Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st July 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, SARRAN AND TULLE, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA79M06X3B95FUEON95L6SMZGWR
- Story Text: The French have gone to the polls for the second and final round of the legislative elections amid fears of record abstentions.
France voted on Sunday (16 June) in the final round of an election seen handing newly elected President Jacques Chirac's centre-right allies a sweeping parliamentary majority and leaving the shattered left licking its wounds.
Opinion polls point to the most impressive conservative victory since 1993 -- yet a surge in turnout could spring a surprise and narrow the right's margin, after a record one in three voters sat out last weekend's first round.
Turnout tends to rise in the final round, but the abstention rate this time is anybody's guess, given this is the fourth time the French have had to come out and cast a ballot in two months.
The electorate flirted with Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front in the presidential race two months ago but scrambled back to traditional middle ground or spurned the ballot box after a mass of street protests against extremism.
Of the 577 National Assembly seats, 519 are at stake after 58 were won outright in the first round last weekend. For those seats, only candidates that scored more than 12.5 percent in the first round are running, leaving 1,045 candidates in the race.
After trouncing the Socialists, and their Green and Communist allies last Sunday with 44 percent of the vote against 37 percent, Chirac's umbrella conservative party, the Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) is slated for a clear majority.
Yet pollsters cannot predict the effect of a chunk of the
6 million voters who abstained last weekend turning out, meaning Sunday evening could yet be packed with suspense.
The abstainers are thought to include a large chunk of disillusioned left-wing voters and as well as people frustrated with middle-of-the-road policies who gave a one-off protest vote to the National Front in the presidentials. While the far-right threat has -- for the time being -- subsided, the election stakes are still high.
A result echoing the first round would free Chirac's hands to finally push through reforms, from tax cuts to a loosening of labour laws and changes in pension provisions, after a frustrating five-year "cohabitation" with the left.
A more narrowly balanced result would make it harder for Chirac's team to unravel left-wing policies, like the controversial 35-hour work week, and press ahead with more privatisations and bringing in U.S. style pension plans.
"Democracy needs diversity, and that everyone's ideas can be expressed and work together towards a common interest. I do not want to say more than this, the French take their vote and I respect this moment when it's not the campaign fights that count but the calmness and the freedom of choice," said Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (PRONOUNCED: Della-noh-eh) Still reeling from the shock ousting of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the presidential race by the blustery, anti-immigrant Le Pen, the left is largely resigned to defeat.
Francois Hollande, who inherited the Socialist leadership, said this week it would be extraordinary if the party did well. Aware, however, that abstentions could swing the result in some constituencies -- Hollande and party heavyweights like Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Daniel Vaillant have been urging abstainees to back them. Their calls, coming on top of a lacklustre, muddled campaign, may have come too late.
"The left is very discouraged after being decapitated by the hasty departure of its leader Lionel Jospin, it's also discouraged because its program was already rejected during the presidential election and in a certain way today it finds itself totally disarmed", right-wing RPR candidate Patrick Devedjian said after casting his vote.
What is unclear is how many of those who abstained in April and then took to the streets, horrified they had helped Le Pen snatch 17 percent of the vote, will make the effort this time.
The far-right leader was determined to make his mark: "The sky is beautiful, and I must admit that I had to force myself to fulfill my duties as a citizen. I came to vote, anyway, even if I do not have a candidate," he said as he left the polling station.
Preliminary results are expected at around 1800GMT. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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