Chirac searches for elusive `elan'

IT DIDN'T look or sound like a desperate plea for support. In his last televised appearance before the second round of French parliamentary elections on June 1st, President Jacques Chirac told the French public that he "heard (their) message" on May 25th when his centre-right majority was trounced by the left in the first round of parliamentary elections.

But his brief speech was similar to those delivered earlier by Mr Chirac and his acolytes, defining the election as a choice between modernity and a return to the past. Trying to reconcile the liberal economic policies demanded by some with the social conscience preferred by others, he chose the middle way - "a society of initiative and responsibility". The delivery was competent, but the president's words lacked the elan the centre-right campaign has tried vainly to achieve.

Just 24 hours earlier, French television had broadcast a pre-recorded message by the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, saying he would resign as soon as the election was over. Mr Juppe's performance was hauntingly reminiscent of the videotapes that Beirut kidnappers used to make of their hostages.

By contrast, Mr Chirac did not seem overly preoccupied by the election rout. He began by praising Mr Juppe, saying be had worked "with self-sacrifice and courage". Some day, Mr Chirac said, the French people would share his high judgment of Mr Juppe. He did not even allude to his replacement, although the identity of his next choice for prime minister is the main subject of speculation just five days before the final round of the election.

Mr Chirac said he had "heard the message" addressed to him through the ballot-box last Sunday, but he did not define what he thought that message was. Instead, he returned to the theme he has developed in televised addresses over the past year and a half. France had fallen behind, he said, and the delay had cost it dearly in jobs, taxes, debts "and in illusions too".

"Do you want to put back in the saddle yesterday's Socialist ideas?" Mr Chirac asked rhetorically. "I ask you to choose another path. A modern and humane path that will better serve French chances and interests."

His economic proposals were a repeat of the free market ideas in the centre-right's programme - an economy of initiative and freedom" - but Mr Chirac also gave a nod to left-leaning voters, saying he wanted "a renewed social model that protects us from the effects of globalisation".

He said France must invent a new method of government "closer to French people", reconcile freedom and solidarity, and achieve strong economic growth by lowering taxes and welfare contributions. On Europe, he repeated his warning of last week, that a left-wing government would endanger European integration.

Returning to his pretext for dissolving parliament on April 21st, Mr Chirac said France "must be coherent and determined to defend its interests in the important negotiations we are currently involved in.

The French people have not forgiven Mr Chirac for what France-Soir newspaper calls the "original sin" of calling an early election for political convenience. Mr Chirac again tried to justify his fateful decision, saying he had wanted to "seize national energy, to engage and convince, to give the nation a strength that was ebbing away".

But last night, French people were still asking why - if the centre-right was so inspired - it had not created the society it now describes during two years in power. Mr Chirac did not explain why a new centre-right government would succeed where the last one failed. It was not the nation's strength, but Mr Chirac's grip on power, that seemed to be ebbing away.