PARIS -- Six months after last spring's presidential and general elections, the French political landscape is undergoing a deep transformation:
(1) Foreign and defense policy aside, the political cohabitation that compelled President Jacques Chirac to leave much of the power to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, a socialist with whom he had little in common, is over. Chirac has recovered all of the stature that former President Charles de Gaulle and the framers of the 1958 Constitution wanted the president of the republic to assume. No rivalry is conceivable between Chirac and the current prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who eschews any presidential ambition. And both men rank high in the polls at present.
(2) In compliance with Chirac's wishes, most of the French conservative and moderate parties appear to have finally overcome century-long feuds involving rightists, centrists, pro- and anti-Gaullists, pro- and anti-Europeans, and so forth to merge into a single Union for a Popular Majority, which held its constitutive congress Nov. 17.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.