PARIS -- Three months ago, the French center-right scored two stunning electoral victories. As a result of miscalculations and voter apathy, the Socialists who had formed the government since 1997 crashed to defeat, and President Jacques Chirac was re-elected with 82 percent of the vote in a runoff ballot against the extreme right wing candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front. A month later, Chirac's supporters won a huge majority in parliamentary elections.
That seemed to set the scene for a tectonic change in one of Europe's major nations, with the new government promising radical change to dismantle the huge state apparatus and set the land of Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle on a new course. But, as the country returns from its summer holiday, the atmosphere is much more hesitant. This could affect the chances of Europe staging a revival as the major continental economy, Germany, wallows in a prolonged downturn.
The government appointed by Chirac under Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin faces a string of economic tests that are making it the target of criticism from both the left and the right. It must reconcile tax-cutting pledges by the president with his insistence on raising spending on law and order and defense, at a time of slowing growth.