FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac was sworn in for a second term of five years in Paris yesterday. In a ceremony at the Elysée Palace, the president of the constitutional council, Mr Yves Guena, proclaimed the results of the election on May 5th and formally reinstated Mr Chirac in office.
"By defeating the temptation of extremism, the French have reaffirmed with force their attachment to their democratic institutions, to public freedoms, to our European engagement and to our universal vocation," Mr Chirac said in reference to his victory over the far-right leader, Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Mr Chirac (69) is the third president in modern France to start a second term, after Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand.
The centre-right, led by Mr Chirac, is on track to receive a bigger share of votes in legislative elections than the left, an opinion poll showed yesterday.
The Ipsos polling group showed that the centre-right would win 41 per cent in the first round of the election on June 9th, beating the left at 39 per cent, while Mr Le Pen's National Front may win 12 per cent.
In the second round on June 16th, the poll predicted Mr Chirac's centre-right would clinch 53 per cent and the left 47 per cent in a two-way race.
In three-way races with the candidates of the extreme right, the centre-right would win 46 per cent, the left - whose Socialist-led coalition ruled until the recent presidential election - would win 40 per cent and the far-right 14 per cent.
Analysts have said that a strong National Front showing in the first round could split the right's vote, handing more seats to the left.
The poll of 894 people comes after Mr Chirac's landslide victory in the presidential election earlier this month. A Sofres poll on the night of Mr Chirac's victory forecast the centre-right would win a majority in parliament next month.
Mr Chirac has pledged €30 billion in tax cuts over the next five years but analysts say he would probably need a majority in the National Assembly to get them passed.
Mr Chirac has also put crime-fighting higher on the agenda since the presidential vote by creating an Internal Security Council.