The fate of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin hung in the balance yesterday after his center-right government was crushed in regional polls by a newly resurgent Socialist Party (PS).
French President Jacques Chirac was contemplating a major Cabinet reshuffle in response to the stunning electoral rebuff, amid mounting speculation over whether he would make Raffarin the scapegoat for the debacle.
The Elysee palace and Hotel Matignon -- Raffarin's official residence -- were both keeping strict silence on the matter early yesterday, though there were reports the prime minister had been driven for a tete-a-tete with the president.
Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party and its junior coalition partner, the Union for French Democracy, were almost wiped from the regional map in Sunday's vote, as the PS took control of 24 out of France's 26 regional assemblies.
A shake-up of the two year-old government with Raffarin staying on as prime minister through the summer was considered the most likely option before Sunday, but the scale of the rout tilted the odds against him.
"Politically Raffarin is dead," said UMP deputy Jacques Myard, citing Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as a possible replacement.
The pro-government Le Figaro newspaper said Chirac was still inclined to keep Raffarin on, so that he can continue to draw public flak at European elections in June and through controversial reforms to the social security system, employment law and state-owned energy concerns.
The president is also reluctant to move Raffarin because the man most likely to revive the UMP's fortunes as prime minister -- Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- is also Chirac's clear rival for leadership of the center-right, Le Figaro said.
"With Sarkozy the right would stay in power, but for Jacques Chirac the problems would begin," it said.
However, Le Monde newspaper, which opposes Chirac, said he had to accept the consequences of the defeat and enter a new period of "cohabitation" with Sarkozy. The term is used in French politics to denote the uneasy periods when presidents and prime ministers are of opposing stripes.
With three years to go till the end of its mandate, the government was overwhelmed on Sunday by a widespread rejection of its policies of gradual public sector reform, tax cuts and cautious economic liberalization.
Recently Raffarin's attempts to overhaul parts of France's large state sector provoked a wave of protests by groups including scientific researchers, lawyers, hospital staff and performing artists -- while his plans to change employment laws prompted the criticism that he sides with big business.
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