France’s Teflon Leader Prime Minister’s Ability To Get Things Done Surprises Many

When he took power in an election upset six months ago, Lionel Jospin seemed an unlikely prime minister - a former professor whose speeches pounded away at record unemployment but left listeners just plain bored.

To the surprise of many, the Socialist leader who toppled the right in the June legislative balloting has emerged as a skillful consensus-builder who has calmed fears of a leftist upheaval.

Although unemployment still hovers at 12.5 percent, Jospin has pressed ahead with plans to join Europe’s single currency, held down spending and gone ahead with selling off state-owned companies - measures that would usually infuriate many leftists.

But after six months on the job, the so-called “Teflon prime minister” still tops the 50-percent approval rating, and he’s increasingly seen as the one to succeed conservative Jacques Chirac as president in 2002.

“To tell you the truth, I work more than I talk,” Jospin said recently.

This fall, the 60-year-old leader helped to quickly end a damaging truckers’ strike and softened his approach on a shorter 35-hour work week that could spread jobs around but has angered management.

Jospin, a former economics professor at the University of Paris, became a big-time player in French politics when he pulled the left together and made a strong showing in the 1995 presidential race won by Chirac.

This June, voters spurned the conservatives, who were badly hurt by incumbent Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a polished technocrat whose style aggravated labor conflicts.

The center-right news weekly L’Express issued a six-month report card last week, commending Jospin for being “tolerant” with a “sense of dialogue” - a leader who was “realistic above all.”

However, the magazine noted that Jospin “doesn’t really give the means to create jobs” - the issue that worries French people the most.

Jospin faces other dangers: his coalition with the Communists could split over measures to fight unemployment and control the budget. A complete break could lead to early legislative elections.

He needs a deal with employers on the 35-hour work week to make job laws more flexible and cut business taxes.

Regional elections in March will be a test for mainstream parties against the far-right National Front, which appeals to voter anger over unemployment, youth violence and budget austerity required for the euro, as Europe’s single currency is called.

But the far-right party, which has garnered about 15 percent of recent national votes, is most likely to undermine conservative parties that imploded in the early election Chirac called in June.

In the end, it is the economy that could save Jospin.

It’s expected to grow between 2 percent and 3 percent next year, which could boost consumer spending and thus chip away at unemployment.