Greens support for France's Jospin under threat
Date: 26-Mar-02
Country: FRANCE
Author: Robert Elliott
Noel Mamere, Greens party candidate in the two-round vote, attacked Jospin for what he called his "declaration of war" by saying in an interview that his Socialist Party had never agreed to Greens demands to phase out nuclear energy.
Jospin is currently neck-and-neck in the opinion polls with President Jacques Chirac, the conservative incumbent he hopes to unseat.
About a dozen candidates will run in the first round on April 21 but only two will contest the runoff on May 5. Opinion polls say Greens make up about 10 percent of the left-wing vote and Jospin would need their support in the second round to win.
Mamere told Reuters on the weekend that Jospin's refusal to consider ending nuclear power "will not encourage me to urge Greens to back him in the second round".
"This declaration is a real knife in the back," he said during a rally in Toulouse, southern France. "It proves that, in pleasing the Communists and the nationalist left, Jospin gives way on the nuclear issue.
"This is very serious. Given these conditions, I don't see how I could call on people to vote for him in the second round," he said.
He repeated his warning on the weekend, telling France Inter radio Jospin was taking a major political risk. "There cannot be a (left-wing) coalition," he warned, "if there is not a strong signal from the Socialist candidate for a nuclear phase-out."
BROAD SUPPORT FOR NUCLEAR POWER
France has one of the highest concentrations of nuclear power generation in the world, with more than 75 percent of its electricity output coming from its network of nuclear plants.
Jospin's Communist allies in his left-wing coalition are staunchly pro-nuclear, seeing France's large atomic energy sector as a key employer, while left-wing nationalists led by Jean-Pierre Chevenement see it boosting France's economic independence.
The threat from the Greens came after Jospin slipped in the polls and lost his lead over Chirac. Pollsters say voters disapproved of his recent comment that Chirac was old and worn out.
An IFOP poll published in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche on the weekend showed Chirac gaining a percentage point and a half to draw even with Jospin in the crucial second round.
The poll had Chirac, who also supports continued nuclear power, ahead by two percentage points in the first round.
Mamere, who polls show has picked up five percent of voters, said Jospin's latest comments on the nuclear issue "changed the whole picture" of the race.
"Such a statement at the heart of the campaign smacks of provocation, of a declaration of war against the Greens. The prime minister knows that the exit from nuclear power is an indisputable point within an eventual government accord," he told the daily Le Monde in an interview.
Jospin said he never planned to phase out nuclear power, which he lauds as cheaper - with short-term operating costs lower than for fossil fuels - and as a guarantee of French independence in the energy sphere.
France is the world's top power exporter, sending abroad about 18 percent of the electricity it generates.
