France

Country in western Europe, bounded to the northeast by Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, south by the Mediterranean Sea, southwest by Spain and Andorra, and west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Government
Under the 1958 Fifth Republic constitution, amended in 1962 and 1995, France has a two‐chamber legislature and a ‘shared executive’ government. The legislature comprises a national assembly, with 577 deputies elected for five‐year terms from single‐member constituencies following a two‐ballot run‐off majority system, and a senate, whose 321 members are indirectly elected, a third at a time, triennially for nine‐year terms from groups of local councillors.

Twenty‐two national‐assembly and 13 senate seats are elected by overseas départements (administrative regions) and territories, and 12 senate seats by French nationals abroad. The national assembly is the dominant chamber. The senate can temporarily veto legislation, but its vetoes can be overridden by the national assembly.

France's executive is functionally divided between the president and prime minister. The president, elected by direct universal suffrage after gaining a majority in either a first or second run‐off ballot, functions as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and guardian of the constitution. A referendum in 2000 reduced the term of the president from seven years to five years, starting in 2002. The president selects the prime minister, presides over cabinet meetings, countersigns government bills, negotiates foreign treaties, and can call referenda and dissolve the national assembly (although only one dissolution a year is permitted).

The prime minister is selected from the ranks of the national assembly. According to the constitution, ultimate control over policymaking rests with the prime minister and council of ministers.

The president and prime minister work with ministers from political and technocratic backgrounds, assisted by a skilled and powerful civil service. A nine‐member constitutional council (selected every three years in a staggered manner by the state president and the presidents of the senate and national assembly, and serving nine‐year, non‐renewable terms) and a Conseil d'Etat (‘council of state’), staffed by senior civil servants, rule on the legality of legislation passed. At the local level there are 21 regional councils concerned with economic planning. Below these are 96 département councils and almost 36,000 town and village councils. Corsica has its own directly elected 61‐seat parliament with powers to propose amendments to national‐assembly legislation.

There are four overseas départements (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion) with their own elected general and regional councils, two overseas ‘collective territories’ (Mayotte and St Pierre and Miquelon) administered by appointed commissioners, and four overseas territories (French Polynesia, the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, New Caledonia, and the Wallis and Futuna Islands) governed by appointed high commissioners, which form constituent parts of the French Republic, returning deputies to the national legislature.

History
For earlier periods of French history, see France: history to 1515, France: history 1515–1815, and France: history 1815–1945.

The aftermath of World War II
Although Paris was physically undamaged in World War II, many cities, such as Brest, Rouen, Lorient, Le Havre, and Caen, were in ruins. The French had suffered considerable economic privations during the years 1940–44; and France in 1944 was in the midst of an inflation that was threatening the very existence of the middle class.

France's internal problems were not its only ones. The pre‐1939 French colonial empire was on the verge of disintegration. Syria and Lebanon had already achieved independence; the French West Africa possessions were demanding at least a measure of self‐government, and some nationalists were calling for outright independence. In Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) the communists and other nationalists soon launched a full‐scale war of independence against France (the Indochina War). These colonial problems drained France's economy severely in the post‐war years and had considerable repercussions on internal French politics.

Towards a new constitution
A constituent assembly charged with drawing up a constitution for a Fourth Republic was elected in 1945, an election in which women voted in France for the first time. The Communists were returned as the strongest party because of their important role in the wartime resistance, closely followed by the Socialists and a new political organization known as the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP), a group of the progressive centre drawing considerable strength from former Catholic resistance fighters.

When the constituent assembly met, Charles de Gaulle returned to the people the powers he had exercised as head of the provisional government formed at the liberation in 1944. Having been given a new mandate, he formed a government drawn from the three main parties, and pledged to implement a far‐reaching social programme. However, de Gaulle resigned in January 1946 because he did not want to be a figurehead president in the manner of the Third Republic, yet already found himself dependent on the political parties, especially the Communists and Socialists.

Throughout 1946 France was searching for a new constitution. The reconciliation of a sovereign legislature with a stable executive was the stumbling block, though the seriousness of the country's economic position clearly pointed to the need for a strong government. A new constitution was eventually approved in a referendum in October. Under the new constitution a second chamber, the Council of the Republic, with members chosen by indirect election, was given a voice, though not a decisive one, in the legislature; the president was to be elected by the two chambers in joint session. There were also provisions for the organization of the French Union – the new term for France's depleted colonial empire.

The Fourth Republic (1946–58): general characteristics and developments
Despite attempts to correct some of the flaws of the Third Republic, the new constitution once again provided for a weak executive and a powerful national assembly. With 26 impermanent governments being formed during the period of the Fourth Republic, real power passed to the civil service, which, by introducing a new system of ‘indicative economic planning’, engineered rapid economic reconstruction.

The peaceful decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia in 1956 and the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958 were also important achievements. In contrast, the forcible expulsion of the French from Indochina in 1954 was for many a national humiliation, and the bitter colonial conflict in Algeria was to bring about the demise of the Fourth Republic itself.

The Blum government of 1946–47
In the November 1946 elections, which created the first national assembly of the Fourth Republic, the Socialists fell to third place among the leading parties. The Communists were still the strongest single party, but the majority in the assembly was anticommunist. In the new conditions of equipoise between Communists and the MRP, the Socialists, despite their depleted numbers, secured the vital position in the middle of the political seesaw, and it was in these circumstances that in December Léon Blum formed a purely Socialist government.

Blum's stopgap government launched an attack on the price rises and on financial instability. Attempts were also made to settle the Indochinese question, where the French were attempting to regain control of their colonies from the nationalists, who had themselves ousted the Japanese‐sponsored regime at the end of World War II. The government also laid the foundations of a new Anglo‐French entente. In January 1947 the assembly installed as first president of the new republic the Socialist Vincent Auriol, a close friend and colleague of Blum.

Governments and events from 1947 to 1957
Blum resigned for reasons of health and was succeeded by Paul Ramadier (also Socialist), who headed a coalition. The change of government did not interfere with the negotiations for a treaty of alliance with the UK, and the treaty was eventually signed at Dunkirk on 4 March 1947. However, the economic situation was deteriorating, and there soon appeared a deepening division in the government between the Communists and the rest of the ministers.

This period was also marked by the formation of the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF, ‘rally of the French people’). The RPF was an organization fostered by de Gaulle as a nationwide movement of national union, and though he was accused by the left, especially the Communists, of favouring reactionary elements, the movement constituted a new and popular force that for a time materially affected the political balance in France.

But meanwhile the economic situation was growing steadily worse. The political situation was further weakened by the refusal of the Communists to vote for the funding of military operations against the nationalists in Indochina and to suppress a revolt in Madagascar. The Communists then left the government in 1947.

In September 1948 a coalition under the Radical Socialist Henri Queuille took office, and a period of relative political stability followed. The following year France joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a founder member. In July 1949 Queuille's government fell. There was a series of rapid changes of government before political stability returned with Georges Bidault as premier.

By early 1950 the situation in Indochina was becoming extremely serious. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was appointed commander in chief of the army and French high commissioner there in an attempt to retrieve the situation; his subsequent premature death probably put the seal on certain French defeat in the area. In May 1950 Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, put forward his ‘Schuman Plan’, which eventually developed into the European Coal and Steel Community, the basis of what is now the European Union.

By mid‐1951 many observers believed that de Gaulle's return to power was imminent. After a temporary improvement, the economic situation was weakening again, a bitter domestic battle was raging on the question of state aid to church schools, and abroad the Indochina crisis continued. In relation to the planned European Defence Community there was considerable controversy in France about whether a European army should include West German forces, both because would involve the recreation of a German army, regarded by many French people as synonymous with the recreation of German ‘militarism’, and because it would subsume French forces within a supranational army.

After a series of short‐lived governments, René Pleven became premier in August 1951, and was succeeded at the beginning of 1952 by Edgar Faure, a Radical Socialist. Faure reopened the question of Tunisian independence, but his government lasted only a few weeks, and in March 1952 Antoine Pinay, an Independent Republican, succeeded him.

In July the Gaullists split on a question of party discipline, and after this time de Gaulle's prospects of a return to power receded rapidly, despite the country's blatant political instability, illustrated by constant changes of government. In May 1953, conscious of a loss of popular support, de Gaulle resigned from the leadership of the RPF, and withdrew from politics.

After a prolonged period without a government, France got a new premier, Laniel, in June 1953. In October 1953 the National Assembly voted in favour of continuing the Indochina War, although the French position there was rapidly becoming untenable. The fall of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 shocked French public opinion deeply, and the following month the government was defeated on an Indochina issue.

The new premier was the Radical Socialist Pierre Mendès‐France. In July the fighting in Indochina was ended by an agreement reached at Geneva. This was generally regarded in France as a crushing surrender; the 80‐year French occupation of Indochina came formally to an end on 29 April 1955. Mendès‐France's North Africa policy eventually led to his defeat in the assembly in February 1955, and he was succeeded by Faure.

The Franco‐Tunisian home‐rule agreements were signed in Paris in June 1955, and in October the former Moroccan sultan, deposed by the French two years earlier, was restored to his throne. But by this time the bitter armed conflict between nationalists and the French army and settlers in Algeria was becoming serious. At home political stability and possibly the Fourth Republic itself were temporarily threatened by the rise of the violently right‐wing poujadist movement, although its popularity was only transient. The Saarland referendum in October, with its overwhelming victory for the pro‐German parties, was another blow to France. In November Faure's government was defeated on a question of electoral reform.

The general elections of January 1956 produced an indecisive result, but in February the Socialist Guy Mollet became premier. Although governing with a precariously balanced coalition, he was premier longer that any other holder of the office under the Fourth Republic. Moroccan independence was announced in March 1956; but it was the increasingly critical Algerian situation that was basically responsible for the defeat of Mollet's government in June 1957, and of its successors.

At the beginning of 1958 the European Economic Community (EEC) came into being. In March 1957 France had been one of the signatories of the Treaty of Rome, which had established the EEC, but in 1958 it seemed that France would not be able to provide it with the expected leadership. There was inflation and economic stagnation at home, and the insoluble Algerian problem across the Mediterranean. France appeared to be moving rapidly towards chaos.

The coming of the Fifth Republic
In May 1958 a revolt of French settlers and army officers in Algeria against what they regarded as the effeteness of the government in Paris and its handling of the Algerian war led to the overthrow of the Fourth Republic. De Gaulle was swept back to power on a wave of popular enthusiasm. He indicated that this time he must be given the means to take whatever measures he deemed necessary to save France, and his policies were approved by a referendum in September. A new constitution establishing the Fifth Republic came into force in October.

The de Gaulle era, 1958–69
In December 1958 de Gaulle was elected as the Fifth Republic's first president, with wide executive powers. The franc was devalued, and a series of drastic measures enacted, aimed at stabilizing the economy. In the longer term, the de Gaulle era was one of economic growth and large‐scale rural‐to‐urban migration. The relationship between France and its overseas possessions was re‐examined: those territories wishing to retain ties with France entered the French Community, which had superseded the French Union. Guinea, however, voted for separation from France and became an independent state without French connections in October 1958. By 1961 so many overseas possessions had gained independence within the French Community that the Community itself was dissolved.

France's economy grew stronger through the succeeding years, though some underlying weaknesses remained, and its foreign policy developed distinctive traits. France took steps to become an independent military nuclear power just when Britain was abandoning the role. Although retaining friendly relations with Britain and the USA at the start of his regime (he paid a successful state visit to Britain in 1960 and had cordial talks in Paris with President Kennedy in 1961), de Gaulle took the decisive step of actively promoting closer Franco‐German relations, and so officially ended a period of hatred and mistrust between the two countries that had been virtually continuous since 1870. Close economic and cultural links were established between France and the German Federal Republic, and in January 1963 de Gaulle and the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco‐German ‘reconciliation treaty’ in Paris.

Meanwhile de Gaulle's decision that the Algerian problem could be solved only by granting full independence to the nationalists caused bitterness among the settlers and officers who had brought him to power in the expectation that he would win the war there for France. There were abortive revolts against de Gaulle in Algeria in 1960 and 1961, and several attempts were made on his life, then and later, by supporters of the Organization de l'Armée Secrète (OAS), which during 1960–61 carried out a systematic terrorist campaign in both Algeria and France. As time passed it attracted some of de Gaulle's foremost original supporters, such as Gen Raoul Salan, Georges Bidault, and Jacques Soustelle, but by 1963 the OAS was a spent force. Algeria became independent in 1962, after a referendum had approved de Gaulle's policy there.

Although there was at times considerable criticism of de Gaulle's government, not merely among extremists but among moderates who felt that he was riding roughshod over democratic principles, his supporters won an overall majority over all other parties in the elections in November 1962. Under de Gaulle, France dominated the European Economic Community, and in January 1963 vetoed Britain's application to join it. De Gaulle distrusted Britain's motives, and was suspicious of Britain's ties with the USA at a time when France was attempting to become the leader of a third ‘European’ force, which would be independent of both the Soviet and the ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ (Anglo‐American) blocs. This pronouncedly independent line was to show itself in France's withdrawal of its fleets from NATO commands, in its first atomic‐bomb test in 1960 and hydrogen‐bomb test in 1968, and in de Gaulle's outspoken criticism in 1965 of US policy in Vietnam.

In 1965 de Gaulle was re‐elected president under the new constitutional arrangement whereby the president was chosen by universal suffrage. However, the election was close: the first ballot failed to give him an outright majority, and in the second ballot his left‐wing opponent François Mitterrand polled nearly 45% of the vote. De Gaulle continued with his independent approach to foreign policy. He took tough action with the EEC in the course of 1966, and in the same year announced the French withdrawal from the integrated military command of NATO, with complete withdrawal to occur in 1969. Nevertheless, de Gaulle's position seemed uncertain. His paternalistic approach to domestic affairs, reflected in censorship and centralization, brought about a public reaction, and in the general elections of 1967 the Gaullists and the ‘right coalition’ won only a bare majority.

In May 1968 a student revolt, largely in the Latin Quarter of Paris, was followed by the most extensive wave of strikes that France had known since 1936. The government was severely shaken, but de Gaulle recovered; the elections of 1968 returned an enormous Gaullist majority, and a new phase of Gaullism seemed to be inaugurated by the appointment of Maurice Couve de Murville as prime minister. By November de Gaulle was in a sufficiently strong position to refuse to devalue the franc. But the referendum of 1969, which sought to reform the Senate and local government, went against de Gaulle. He resigned in April 1969 and took no further part in French public life.

Pompidou's presidency, 1969–74
De Gaulle's former prime minister Georges Pompidou was elected president on de Gaulle's resignation. Pompidou maintained some Gaullist principles in foreign policy, such as retaining independent possession of nuclear weapons, the desire for understanding with communist countries, and a critical attitude towards Israel. But he was more subtle and more conciliatory in many spheres, particularly towards Great Britain's membership of the EEC, which his meeting with the British prime minister Edward Heath in 1971 made possible. At home Pompidou was cautious. He was alarmed both by the increase of left‐wing support (as shown in the elections of 1973 that reduced the Gaullist majority) and by the number of scandals affecting Gaullist politicians. But France remained prosperous, and Pompidou saw no threat to his position, until he was stricken with illness and died in April 1974.

Giscard's presidency, 1974–81
At first it seemed that Pompidou's successor would be the former Gaullist prime minister Jacques Chaban‐Delmas. But a revolt among certain Gaullists, led by Jacques Chirac, and the prestige of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, leader of the centre‐right Independent Republicans, proved too much. In the second ballot Giscard d'Estaing rallied most of the Gaullists and moderates, as well as the right wing, to beat the Communist–Socialist coalition, led by Mitterrand, which must also have received some Gaullist and moderate support.

Giscard attempted to present an informal image, and encouraged the impression of a France governed by young and dynamic men and women. In domestic policies he was too conservative to be an innovator, but in social matters he emphasized the quality of life and sought to improve conditions for women by laws that made it easier to obtain divorce and abortion. He also lowered the minimum age of voting from 21 to 18, relaxed censorship, and reformed the education system. He followed Gaullist principles by insisting on the primacy of French interests and of French nuclear weapons, but followed Pompidou in being conciliatory and cautious. In the European Community he played a more active and cooperative role than his predecessors.

Giscard faced opposition, however, from his ‘right coalition’ partner Jacques Chirac, who was prime minister 1974–76; he also had to contend with deteriorating international economic conditions. France performed better than many of its European competitors in the period 1974–81, with the president launching a major nuclear‐power programme to save on energy imports and, while Raymond Barre was prime minister (1976–81), a new, liberal ‘freer market’ economic strategy. During this period the Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF; Union for French Democracy) was formed to unite several centre‐right parties. However, with 1.7 million unemployed, Giscard was defeated by Socialist Party leader François Mitterrand in the 1981 presidential election.

Mitterrand and the ‘left coalition’
Mitterrand's victory was the first presidential success for the ‘left coalition’ during the Fifth Republic, and was immediately succeeded by a landslide victory for the Parti Socialiste (PS; Socialist Party) and Parti Communiste Français (PCF; French Communist Party) in the 1981 elections to the national assembly. The new administration introduced a radical programme of social reform, decentralization, and nationalization, and passed a series of reflationary budgets aimed at reducing unemployment.

Financial constraints forced a switch towards a more conservative policy of rigueur (‘austerity’) in 1983. A U‐turn in economic policy was completed in 1984 when the prime minister, Pierre Mauroy, was replaced by Laurent Fabius, prompting the resignation of PCF members of the cabinet. An international scandal was created in July 1985 when the ship Rainbow Warrior, belonging to the environmental organization Greenpeace, whose opposition to nuclear testing annoyed France, was sunk in New Zealand by French secret‐service agents. Unemployment rose to over 2.5 million in 1985–86, increasing racial tension in urban areas. The extreme right‐wing National Front, led by Jean‐Marie Le Pen, benefited from this and gained seats in the March 1986 national assembly elections. The ‘left coalition’ lost its majority, the PCF having been in decline for some years. The PS, however, had emerged as France's single most popular party.

Mitterrand and Chirac
From 1958 to 1986 the president and prime minister had been drawn from the same party coalition, and the president had been allowed to dominate in both home and foreign affairs. In 1986 Mitterrand was obliged to appoint as prime minister the leader of the opposition, Jacques Chirac, who emerged as the dominant force in the ‘shared executive’. Chirac introduced a radical ‘new conservative’ programme of denationalization, deregulation, and ‘desocialization’, using the executive's decree powers and the parliamentary guillotine to steamroller measures through. His educational and economic changes encountered serious opposition from militant students and striking workers, necessitating embarrassing policy concessions. Chirac was defeated by Mitterrand in the May 1988 presidential election.

Rocard's progressive programme
In the national assembly elections of June 1988, the Socialists emerged as the largest single political party. Mitterrand duly appointed Michel Rocard, a moderate social democrat, as prime minister heading a minority PS government that included several centre‐party representatives. Rocard implemented a progressive programme, aimed at protecting the underprivileged and improving the quality of life. In June 1988 he negotiated the Matignon Accord, designed to solve the New Caledonia problem, which was later approved by referendum. Between 1988 and 1990 France enjoyed a strong economic upturn and attention focused increasingly on quality of life, with Les Verts (the Green Party) gaining 11% of the national vote in the European Parliament elections of June 1989.

Racial tensions
Although the extreme‐right Front National (FN; National Front) had been virtually eliminated from the national assembly in 1988 by the reintroduction of single‐member constituencies, it continued to do well in municipal elections, pressurizing the government into adopting a hard line against illegal immigration. New programmes were announced for the integration of Muslim immigrants – from Algeria, Tunisia, and other areas with French colonial ties – into mainstream French society. Religious and cultural tensions increased. A commission set up to look at the problems of immigrant integration reported in 1991 that France's foreign population was 3.7 million (6.8% of the population), the same as in 1982. However, 10 million citizens were of ‘recent foreign origin’.

The Gulf War
In September 1990, after Iraqi violation of the French ambassador's residence in Kuwait, the French government dispatched 5,000 troops to Saudi Arabia. Despite France's previously close ties with Iraq (including arms sales), French military forces played a prominent role within the US‐led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War. Defence minister Jean‐Pierre Chevènement resigned in February 1991 in opposition to this strategy, but the majority of people in the country – which has the largest Muslim population in western Europe – supported the government's stance.

Mitterrand's popularity in decline
In April 1991 the neo‐Gaullist Rassemblement pour la République (RPR; Rally for the Republic) and the Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDP; Union for French Democracy), France's main, usually factious, right‐of‐centre opposition parties, signed a formal election pact. In May, after disagreements over economic policy, Mitterrand replaced Rocard with Edith Cresson, saying that her experience as a former member of the European Parliament and minister for European affairs would be important for France's future in Europe. Mitterrand became the Fifth Republic's longest‐serving president in September 1991.

However, with the economy in recession, racial tensions increasing, discontent among farmers, militancy among public‐sector workers, and the reputation of the PS tarnished by a number of financial scandals, Mitterrand's popularity fell from over 50% in September 1991 to barely 35% in January 1992.

By the close of 1991, the popularity rating of Cresson was the lowest ever for a premier in the Fifth Republic, and in the March 1992 regional council elections the PS captured only 18% of the national vote. Mitterrand appointed Pierre Bérégovoy to replace Cresson in April 1992. As finance minister, he had been blamed by Cresson for the nation's economic troubles, but he was respected by the country's financial community. In a referendum in September 1992 the Maastricht Treaty on European union was narrowly endorsed.

Balladur's premiership
The PS suffered a heavy defeat in the March 1993 national‐assembly elections, which were held during the midst of economic recession, with the unemployment rate exceeding 10%. The PS's national poll share was its lowest since the parliamentary election of 1968. Mitterrand appointed Edouard Balladur of the conservative RPR as prime minister, to head the second ‘cohabitation’ government of his presidency. In the aftermath of the PS defeat, Bérégovoy committed suicide. Michel Rocard was chosen to replace him as PS leader, but resigned in June 1994 after the PS polled poorly in the European elections. He was replaced by Henri Emmanuelli.

Balladur proved a popular prime minister but encountered opposition to his tight immigration and privatization policies and his proposals for local‐government funding of private schools, which put him at odds with President Mitterrand. His employment legislation, reducing the minimum wage paid to young workers, was criticized by unions and the PS, and he abandoned these proposals after protest demonstrations were followed by a revival of the left in local elections. With Mitterrand in failing health, Balladur emerged as the dominant force in the ‘cohabitation’ administration, compounding his popularity by engineering a recovery in the French economy. However, in the autumn of 1994 his popularity rating slumped after several of his ministers were implicated in corruption scandals and resigned. Financial scandals also damaged the PS, made worse by the revelation of the use of HIV‐infected blood in transfusions under earlier Socialist governments.

French influence in central Africa was severely weakened by the fall of president Mobutu in Zaire, following the collapse in 1994 of the regime France had supported in Rwanda.

Chirac becomes president
Evidence of a split within the conservative RPR emerged in the run‐up to the 1995 presidential elections when it became clear that both Jacques Chirac, former premier and party leader, and Prime Minister Balladur intended to contest the presidency. Balladur, whose reputation had suffered from his alleged involvement in a telephone‐tapping affair and his admission that he had profited from share dealings, rapidly lost ground to Chirac, who presented himself as a ‘man of the people’, promising action against ‘social exclusion’, more jobs, higher public‐sector wages, and a more relaxed economic policy to stimulate recovery. After the PS took a surprising lead in the first ballot, Balladur dropped out of the contest. Chirac, at the head of a ‘right coalition’, was elected president in May, securing a comfortable majority over the PS candidate Lionel Jospin. He appointed the former foreign minister and pro‐European Alain Juppé as prime minister, and began his presidency with the controversial announcement that France planned to resume nuclear‐weapons testing in the Pacific region. The decision to resume nuclear testing was widely condemned and the first test on Mururoa atoll provoked anticolonial riots in Tahiti. At home, national security measures were announced in the wake of a terrorist bombing campaign mounted by Algerian guerrillas, and the position of Juppé appeared under threat owing to his implication in a housing scandal. Significant amendments to the constitution were approved in July 1995, but by the end of the year popular support for President Chirac had slumped dramatically, with nationwide public‐sector strikes – the worst since 1968 – in November and December bringing the nation's transport system to a virtual standstill.

Events in 1996–97
In January 1996 the government announced an end to its nuclear‐weapons testing programme in the south Pacific and called for a worldwide test ban. In March a treaty with the USA and Britain was signed that made the south Pacific a nuclear‐free zone. In the same month former defence minister François Léotard replaced Giscard as head of the centre‐right UDF, the junior partner in the ruling coalition.

Pledging a reduction in the country's fiscal deficit and a commitment to a single European currency, in August the government agreed to cut government spending by 2% in real terms in 1997 in an effort to qualify for European Monetary Union in 1999, in spite of high unemployment and lack of growth in the economy.

In May 1996 a fresh outbreak of terrorist violence by the outlawed National Corsican Liberation Front ended the truce called in January and jeopardized future talks with the French government. In December François Santoni, leader of the hardline Corsican separatist A Cuncolta Naziunalista wing of the front, was captured by French police, but the organization continued to mount a wave of bombings in Corsica and Nice in January 1997. In May 1998 Corsican separatists ended a three‐month ceasefire with a bombing in southern France.

1997 elections – Socialists come to power
In March 1997 unemployment reached a post‐war record of 12.8% of the workforce. However, the rise was slowing and the economy was beginning to pick up. This persuaded President Chirac to announce in late April that a general election would be held a year early. His intention was that the government should receive a mandate to carry out further austerity measures that would enable France to meet the financial targets required for membership of a single European currency in 1999, and would assure Chirac a majority in the national assembly until the end of his presidential term. His tactic backfired, however, when the elections were won by the PS, who opposed the previous government's austerity measures. The PS leader Lionel Jospin became prime minister in June 1997. His left‐wing coalition government claimed victory in French regional elections in mid‐March 1998, but fell short of the sweeping successes it had expected. Although the far‐right FN fell short of the record nationwide score predicted by opinion polls, it seemed to have matched, or slightly exceeded, the 15% it achieved in the 1997 parliamentary election.

Jospin's plans
In September 1997 unemployment was 3.2 million, or 12.6%, and still rising. The new PS government unveiled plans to create 35,000 new jobs in the public sector over the coming two and a half years, implementing a manifesto comment. The jobs would go to 18–25‐year‐olds, over a quarter of whom were currently unemployed, and they would be given five‐year contracts of a level of at least the minimum wage, with 80% of the cost underwritten by the government. However, in policy U‐turns, it allowed privatization to continue with the sale of holdings in Air France and France Telecom, and broke a promise to abolish tough immigration laws introduced by the preceding government.

In January 1998 the government faced nationwide protests by unemployed people, who marched and occupied welfare offices, demanding additional financial assistance. Prime Minister Jospin offered to create a FFr 1 billion fund to help the unemployed through retraining and other measures. In February the National Assembly passed a law to reduce the working week from 39 hours to 35 hours, starting in 2000. When this did come into effect, in February 2000 there were protests, notably by French lorry drivers who blocked roads and border checkpoints in anger at the attempt by employers to use the new legislation to break down traditional working patterns and to impose a wage freeze.

Regional elections and party splits
In regional elections in March 1998, the ruling PS, Verts, and PCF coalition performed well, winning 37% of the vote, while the FN, with 15% of the vote, held the balance of power in 19 of the 22 regions. The ‘mainstream right’, comprising the RPR and the UDF, won 36% of the vote, but was thrown into disarray by divisions over whether to accept FN support to take control of regions. Four UDF members, including the former defence minister, Charles Millon, defied the party's leadership and retained their regional presidencies with FN support. They were consequently banned from the UDF. Millon, president of Rhône‐Alpes region, responded in April 1998, by forming a new party. In May 1998 the Démocratie Libérale (DL; Liberal Democracy), led by Alain Madelin, broke away from the UDF. Also in May, the FN narrowly lost its one National Assembly seat in a by‐election. In April 1998 the National Assembly voted in favour of France's involvement in the European single currency.

In September 1998, François Bayrou, a former education minister and the leader of Democratic Force, was elected leader of the opposition centre‐right UDF. The vacancy had been created by the resignation of François Leotard, who was under investigation in connection with allegations of illicit funding of the defunct Republican Party. In November 1999 Michèle Alliot‐Marie, a lawyer, was elected head of the RPR, making her the first woman to lead one of France's main political parties.

In December 1998, the FN, the most successful far‐right party in Western Europe, broke into two factions, led respectively by Le Pen and his rebel deputy, Bruno Mégret, each claiming to be the true standard‐bearer of the French ultra‐right. Mégret was elected president in late January 1999 of what his supporters claimed was the authentic version of the FN. The Mégret wing of the party – called the Mouvement National Républicain (MNR; National Republican Movement) claimed to be patriotic rather than xenophobic and concerned principally with the threats of the present (immigration, globalism, US cultural imperialism, and European federalism). A court ruled in May 1999, however, that the right to use the name, symbols, and campaign subsidiaries of the FN belonged to Le Pen and not to Mégret. The ruling was a severe rebuff for the breakaway party.

In December 1998, it was announced that GDP grew by 3.1% during 1998, the strongest performance during the 1990s, leading to high levels of public support (above 60%) for Prime Minister Jospin. The unemployment rate fell to 11%.

Corsica
The government of Prime Minister Jospin survived a vote of censure in May 1999 in the National Assembly. It had been brought by the conservative opposition in protest at the government's handling of a scandal in Corsica, which led to the sacking and detention of the prefect there. The issue of rule in Corsica was addressed by Jospin in July 2000 when he unveiled a plan for limited autonomy for the government there. In an attempt to end 20 years of violence on the island, he proposed a single political and administrative body with limited independent law‐making powers. The proposals marked a great departure from the tradition of heavy‐handed government from Paris, and were overwhelmingly approved by the Corsican Assembly (the regional parliament). The plan was conditional on an end to violence.

BSE
In October 1999, France refused to join other European countries in lifting a ban on British beef which had been enforced in response to cases of BSE, a disease in cows, being transferred to humans through beef, causing Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a brain disease. The British government reacted angrily to France's refusal to resume imports of British beef. In October 2000, fears over BSE in French cattle rose as three supermarket chains were discovered to have sold meat from infected herds. The following month, President Chirac called for an immediate ban on cattle remains in all French animal feed and schools took beef off the menu.

On 25 July 2000, an Air France Concorde aircraft crashed soon after take‐off in Paris, killing all 113 people on board and leading to all Concordes being grounded.

Fuel protests
A wave of disruptive protests over fuel prices supplemented by high taxes upon petrol and other oil products hit Europe in August and September 2000. Popular protests began in France at the end of August, when protests involving the blockading of oil refineries, halting deliveries of fuel, by lorry drivers, farmers, ambulance workers and taxi drivers were successful as the government made tax concessions on fuel. The actions of the French government inspired similar protests in Germany, Spain, the UK, Ireland, and Belgium.

Elf‐Aquitaine corruption scandal
In January 2001, the trial began of the former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, his ex‐mistress, and others, on charges of corruption in relation to Elf‐Aquitaine, a state‐owned oil company. In February, Alfred Sirven, a former leading executive at Elf, was extradited from the Philippines to face corruption charges, and act as a key witness in the case involving Dumas. In May, the trial resulted in prison sentences for most of the accused, including Dumas who was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to six months in jail. It was one of the biggest corruption trials in French history.

Paris mayoral elections
In March 2001, Paris elected its first Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, since 1871. Delanoe was also one of the country's few openly gay politicians.

Chirac under investigation
In March 2001, President Chirac refused on constitutional grounds to testify before a tribunal investigating corrupt financing of his party in Paris when he was mayor. He had been implicated in October 2000, when an investigation uncovered a videotape of a bribe allegedly being given his presence in 1986. Further allegation were made in June, and magistrates announced that they wanted to question Chirac, as well as his wife and daughter, over cash payments for trips made when he was mayor of Paris. In July, Chirac rejected suggestions that he had received £240,000 in bribes, allegedly spent on holidays for himself and his family and friends.

On 1 January 2002, euro notes and coins were introduced as the national currency.

Presidential elections
In the second round of the presidential election on 5 May, Chirac, won by a landslide with 82.2% of the vote (the highest ever margin of victory in the Fifth Republic) over Jean‐Marie Le Pen, the leader of the FN. Socialist voters switched their allegiance to Chirac following the elimination of Lionel Jospin in the first round, reflecting their hostility to Le Pen's perceived fascism. However, Le Pen attracted 5.5 million votes (720,000 more than in the first round) in an 80% turnout, provoking widespread European concern about the increasing popularity of far‐right parties.

In June 2002, in the concluding round of parliamentary elections in France, the centre‐right won a landslide victory, taking 399 of the National Assembly's 577 seats. The Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle (UMP; Union for the Presidential Majority), an alliance of the RPR and the DL supporting President Chirac, secured 355 seats, the UDF 29 seats, and other right‐wing candidates 15 seats. The left lost its former parliamentary majority as the PS dropped by 101 seats to 140 and its allies won only a further 38.

EU referendum
In May 2005, a referendum concerning the proposed EU constitution resulted in a ‘no’ vote. Prime Minister Raffarin resigned following the referendum and was replaced by Dominique de Villepin.