FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac consolidated his hold over the French legislature yesterday when deputies elected "his" candidate, Mr Jean-Louis Debré, as speaker of the National Assembly. For the next five years, the Assembly will rubber stamp laws for Mr Chirac, whose UMP party holds 365 of 577 seats. Mr Debré won 342 of 531 votes cast.
Mr Debré (57) is the son of the late Michel Debré, who was Charles de Gaulle's closest aide and prime minister. He served as minister of the interior in the 1995-1997 Juppé government and lent his name to an unpopular anti-immigration law that prompted refugees to take over the St Bernard Church in Paris and sparked huge street demonstrations. Mr Debré sent in riot police to retake the church.
Mr Debré is known as a "slap on the back, let's have a drink" politician - not for intellectual prowess. He used his talent for "proximity" - the byword of the Raffarin government - to campaign in his shirtsleeves for France's fourth highest office, personally welcoming many of the 175 first-time deputies with a champagne flute in hand at UMP headquarters, or on the Assembly's rooftop restaurant. His haughty centre-right challenger, the former prime minister Mr Edouard Balladur (73), campaigned by telephone. The champagne - and Mr Chirac's backing - carried the day.
Mr Debré will be drinking plenty of champagne at the Hotel de Lassay, the palatial speaker's residence beside the National Assembly. It is reputed to have the finest wine cellar in Paris, with 3,500 bottles of vintage bordeaux and 600 bottles of burgundy.
Mr Debré's first qualification in Mr Chirac's eyes is his absolute loyalty to Mr Chirac, especially during the "Balladur betrayal" of 1995. Yesterday's vote for "the perch" - as the speaker's seat is called - was the final stage of that contest. Mr Balladur claims he is the spiritual father of the UMP, since he has called for one, united right-wing party since 1988. But in the 1995 presidential campaign Mr Balladur broke ranks with other Gaullists and nearly succeeded in stealing the nomination from Mr Chirac. Seven years later, Mr Balladur believed he was rehabilitated, but the stain attached to him and those who sided with him, including the present interior minister Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, will never disappear completely.
Mr Balladur angered his fellow UMP members by rejecting a "primary" which could have eliminated him before the afternoon session. He withdrew his candidacy when the results of the first round made it clear that he could not beat Mr Debré. The long, loud applause for Mr Balladur was ambiguous. Was the Assembly showing appreciation for the career of a man often caricatured as Louis XIV? Or merely grateful that he cut short what could have been an ugly battle? The socialists, who hold 141 Assembly seats, fielded a little known woman candidate.
Mr Balladur obviously hoped the left would support him against Mr Debré, but the socialists announced they would "in no event get mixed up in this outdated quarrel between a former dissident Chiraquian and an ultra-Chiraquian."