Some analysts said the measure would have little immediate impact on France's economic problems. "This law isn't out of economic or social necessity, but more of an ideology of the center-right in favor of businesses"It may have little immediate impact, but it's generally expected to have positive long term impact on reducing unemployment. And if he's a pollster, why is he expressing what looks like a personal opinion? Maybe he's stating the opinion of the French public. While looking for more background on him, I found an old article written before he was re-elected.
How to succeed in politics without really lying: The charmed career of Jacques Chirac by Jon Henley
...as another former president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, likes to observe: "Chirac can have his mouth full of jam, his lips can be dripping with the stuff, his fingers covered with it, the pot can be standing open in front of him. And when you ask him if he's a jam eater, he'll say: 'Me, eat jam? Never, Monsieur le president'!"Then there's Chirac Outburst Blasts Hopes of EU Summit United Front by Jon Smith and Geoff Meade:
...he is looking more likely every day to be returned to the Elysée palace for a five-year term.
There is little doubt that the steadily rising tide of sleaze lapping round Mr Chirac's ankles would, in many western democracies, effectively disqualify him from standing.
"Three different magistrates have uncovered what they call strong and concordant evidence implicating Mr Chirac in criminal acts," says Arnaud Montebourg, a socialist MP who - until a court ruling last year that the president was immune from prosecution (or even questioning) as long as he remained in office - led a campaign to have Mr Chirac impeached...
Since no one in France can realistically plead ignorance of the allegations levelled at their head of state, the only conclusion possible is that sleaze does not matter.
"I think the allegations have already been discounted," says Stephane Rozes of the CSA polling agency. "It may seem hard to understand, but when it comes to choosing their president the French are not necessarily swayed by criteria like transparency, integrity and reliability. For a prime minister, maybe yes. But not, somehow, for a president."
President Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder soured the mood with a bitter attack on proposed new Euro-laws they claim will expose their service sector workers to cheap labour from the new member states.Actually, according to Le Figaro,
And when a majority of other leaders including Tony Blair refused the demand to withdraw the "Services Directive" entirely, President Chirac launched a tirade against the new economic liberalism he thinks is pervading the expanded EU.
"Ultra-liberalism is the communism of our current days," he thundered...
...il a même lâché, tout en assurant ne pas être antilibéral : «Le libéralisme, ce serait aussi désastreux que le communisme.»("...while assuring his listeners that he was not anti-liberal, he blurted out 'liberalism would be just as disastrous as communism.'")
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