France’s President Pleads Case After Election Setback Asks Voters To Retain Conservatives For The Sake Of European Integration

Hoping to salvage a victory from a surprise election setback, President Jacques Chirac pleaded with voters Tuesday to keep his conservatives in power for the sake of European integration.

A coalition of Chirac’s Rally for the Republic party and the centrist Union for French Democracy won only 29.9 percent of the vote in Sunday’s first round of parliamentary elections.

It was the conservatives’ worst first-round showing in nearly four decades - and it prompted the resignation of Chirac’s unpopular prime minister, Alain Juppe.

Moving quickly to control the damage, Chirac warned the nation Tuesday night that the Socialists could jeopardize economic austerity reforms if elected in this Sunday’s runoff vote.

“Last Sunday, I heard your message,” Chirac said in a televised address. “The situation remains fragile. Be warned not to compromise everything at the moment when we are collecting the first fruits of our efforts.”

A majority of French voters apparently rejected Chirac’s requested mandate for austerity measures aimed at enabling France to join the single European currency, the euro, planned for 1999.

The Socialist Party and its leftist allies won 40.6 percent of the vote Sunday with promises to fight the country’s record 12.8 percent unemployment rate. The far-right National Front - which claims that a united Europe sells out French sovereignty - won 15 percent of the vote.