Honeymoon over as Raffarin tackles election pledges

The honeymoon period of the centre-right French government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin will come to an abrupt end this week when it finally wrestles with the often contradictory promises made during the election campaigns of April and June.

After devoting its first four months in office to a series of populist and feel-good measures, the government faces an explosive return from the summer holidays or rentrée. It must announce this week how it plans to make the statutory 35-hour working week more flexible and how it proposes to square the circle of tax cuts and EU-imposed limits on bud- get deficits.

Special interest groups from teachers, to doctors, nurses, farmers and civil servants are threatening to take their grievances to the street if the policies adopted by Mr Raffarin fail to meet their demands or damage their privileges. President Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister have promised a new approach to government – to be closer to the people and respect the promises made in the presidential and parliamentary elections in the spring and early summer.

Early indications suggest, however, that the Raffarin government is unwilling to break out of the trap that has snared previous governments. Reform of the sprawling apparatus of the French state has been repeatedly adjourned or fudged in recent years in the face of protests from interest groups.

A series of stop-go announcements and U-turns by ministers over the summer suggests that the government is no more willing than its predecessors to brave street protests and short-term unpopularity. At the weekend, theEducation Minister announced that there would be a small reduction in the number of teaching posts next year.

After a flurry of menaces from teaching unions, the announcement was withdrawn and replaced with milder proposals, which still drew threats from the education establishment.

Long-awaited proposals on the reform of the 35-hour week, expected in the next few days, also seem likely to be less far-reaching than the government had promised. The mandatory reduction in the working week is intended to create employment. It has proved deeply unpopular with blue-collar workers because it restricts their overtime. However, the long weekends and extra holidays are hugely popular with white-collar workers, who support the centre-right.

Despite election promises that it would be radically reformed, the Raffarin government is unwilling to offend its middle-class, office-working constituency. It has let it be known that the changes will mostly consist of allowing employers and employees to renegotiate the overtime limits, industry by industry.

The employers' union, which is already grumbling about this U-turn, has been promised reductions in their social contributions, which will also be announced this week. On top of the income-tax reductions rushed through in the early summer, the cuts in social charges will leave a gaping hole in public finances.

With the economy showing signs of slowing and the government committed to new spending on the police and army, even Mr Chirac and Mr Raffarin's centre-right supporters are beginning to complain that the numbers fail to add up. The room for manoeuvre is limited by France's commitment, as member of the euro, to reduce its budget deficit (2.6 per cent of GDP this year) to zero in two years.

Mr Raffarin has said that he is prepared to charge the union guns and reduce the number of public employees. The indications are, however, that this government enjoys making popular announcements but is unwilling to suffer pain.