On the surface, yesterday's cabinet meeting seemed a relaxed return from the long summer holiday, with French ministers boasting about the fish they'd caught and comparing suntans.
But it was the first time President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin had seen each other in a month, after parting on a war footing in July. In his Bastille Day television address, Mr Chirac had called Mr Jospin "one of those people who is endlessly undermining society, and who in fact wants to break society".
Yesterday marked the beginning of an eight-month presidential election battle between the two. Mr Jospin must have felt discouraged to read a study in LibΘration predicting his defeat, conducted by economists from the University of Paris and the French Association of Political Science. Mathematical simulations taking account of the economic slow-down and stagnant unemployment show the left losing both the presidency and the majority in the National Assembly.
The autumn rentrΘe was disastrous for Mr Jospin in 1999 and 2000, because of mass firings at Michelin and fuel price protests. This year could be just as difficult; first there is Corsica, where the separatist leader Mr Francois Santoni was murdered a week ago. The right and the former interior minister, Mr Jean-Pierre ChevΦnement, criticise Mr Jospin's Matignon accords daily, while those who supported the agreement are silent. Yesterday, in his first statement since the assassination, Mr Jospin said the dialogue in Corsica must continue.
To make matters worse, Mr Jospin's allies in the Green Party are drawing attention to themselves, and repeatedly challenge his authority. The Greens' presidential candidate, Mr Alain Lipietz, horrified the ruling communist-socialist and green coalition when he demanded amnesty for all Corsican "political" prisoners. Mr Yves Contassot, the Green deputy mayor of Paris, became a folk hero this week when a motorcyclist knocked him off his bicycle.
The prominent green deputy Mr Noδl MamΦre warned that if the government re-opened the Mont Blanc tunnel without sufficiently consulting the population of Chamonix, it would constitute "a casus belli" between the party and Mr Jospin. But the communist transport minister, Mr Jean-Claude Gayssot, swore yesterday that the tunnel would re-open before the end of the year. The Green environment minister, Mr Yves Cochet, "does not understand the issue" and "lacks experience", Mr Gayssot said.
The right will continue to attack Mr Jospin for his handling of Corsica, falling economic growth and the surge in crime.
Mr Chirac's vulnerability is personal. Following a scandal over his purchase in cash of millions of francs worth of airline tickets, Le Canard EnchaȨnΘ reported that in 1978 Mr Chirac inveigled the Claude Pompidou Foundation into buying land next to his chateau in CorrΦze to prevent it being turned into a holiday camp for Parisian immigrant children. Madame Pompidou - who is Mrs Chirac's best friend - dismissed the allegation in an interview published yesterday by Paris Match. "This so-called affair was completely made up, a few months before the presidential election," she said.