DATE= 04/19/02

TYPE= BACKGROUND REPORT

NUMBER=5-51458

TITLE=CQ FRANCE / CHIRAC VS. JOSPIN

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT=

///EDS: REISSUED TO CORRECT CORRESPONDENT NAME IN OUTER SLUG. NO OTHER CHANGES.///

INTRO: France goes to the polls Sunday to choose among 16 candidates for

president. The two front-runners, conservative incumbent Jacques Chirac and

his socialist rival, prime minister Lionel Jospin, are expected to garner enough votes to face each other in what could be an razor-thin runoff on May 5th. But correspondent Roger Wilkison reports neither of the two men has been able to inspire voters.

TEXT: The French, normally passionate about their politics -- especially

when there is a clear-cut ideological choice to be made -- are apathetic this

time around. Though there are enough candidates in the race for France's

highest office to suit all tastes, it is taken for granted that Mr. Chirac

and Mr. Jospin will each win about 20 percent of the vote and move into the

second round.

Mr. Chirac beat Mr. Jospin in the last presidential election in 1995, but,

two years later, was forced to share power with him when the socialists and

their allies took control of parliament.

Both men are in their sixties and members of France's mainstream political

elite. Their platforms are centrist and, according to most analysts, indistinguishable.

Where there are differences between the two is in style.

Mr. Chirac is an affable, smooth-talking, flesh-pressing, baby-kissing

politician who likes to wade into a crowd. But he has been tainted by a

series of fund-raising scandals that go back to his time as mayor of Paris,

and his standing among young voters is especially low.

A popular television program that uses rubber puppets to spoof politicians

portrays Mr. Chirac, clad in a Superman suit, as Super-liar, complete with a

Pinocchio-like nose, for his failure to provide information about his

alleged involvement in the scandals. But Pierre Lelouche, a foreign policy

analyst who supports Mr. Chirac, says the characterization is unfair and

that the president is as truthful as any other politician.

/// LELOUCHE ACTUALITY ///

He studies a lot. He reads a lot. He is a very warm person. He is a nice

guy.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

The same television program that casts Mr. Chirac as Super-liar portrays the

bespectacled Mr. Jospin as such a bore that his entourage nods off whenever

he speaks.

Few people in France deny that the professorial prime minister is honest,

hard-working and competent, a product, many say, of his Protestant

upbringing. But his dry personality and his intellectual demeanor have made

him an uninspiring presidential candidate. Mr. Jospin's biographer, Sylvie

Maligorne, says he should loosen up.

/// MALIGORNE IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH VOICEOVER ACTUALITY ///

Lionel Jospin is somebody who is very strict, serious, honest. But, at the

same time, he has a tendency to judge everybody, which can be unpleasant.

The French are people who are not very obedient. They don't like rules too

much. And somebody who puts discipline forward as a personal principle is

annoying. And that is his weakness. He should relax a bit and show some

warmth.

///END ACTUALITY///

Whereas Mr. Chirac has turned off many voters by not being forthcoming about

the corruption allegations against him, pollster Philippe Mechet says Mr.

Jospin broke a cardinal rule of French politics by criticizing the incumbent

president as old and worn out.

///MECHET ACTUALITY///

France is politically correct. So there are things that we can think but

not say, especially when we are a candidate.

///END ACTUALITY///

Mr. Mechet says Mr. Chirac and Mr. Jospin, who have been forced to work

together for the past five years, cordially despise each other. Their

power-sharing arrangement has shown just how little power a French president

really has. The chief of state controls foreign and defense policy. But

the prime minister controls the pursestrings.

The president can do little about such issues as crime and the economy

without having the prime minister on his side.

So both candidates must do more than win the presidential election. They

have to convince voters to give their parties a victory in the legislative

elections that are due in June. Only then will whoever is elected president

know whether he can really lead France or just be what some have dubbed a

spectator president, like Mr. Chirac has been for the past five years. (signed)

NEB/RW/RH