------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 15, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
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.
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