For the first time since sweeping to power nearly a year ago, France’s conservative leadership has split over the growing rivalry between Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and Jacques Chirac.
After months of maintaining a public show of unity, Chirac last week attacked the Balladur government at a meeting of the center-right leadership, criticizing Balladur’s nuclear policy and accusing the defense minister of lacking courage.
Tension has been growing for months between the two longtime allies. Balladur, a low-key, aristocratic politician, has proved unexpectedly popular as premier, overshadowing the gregarious Chirac and threatening his bid to be the center-right’s candidate in next year’s presidential elections.
Chirac, now the mayor of Paris, was prime minister in the mid-1970s and again in the mid-1980s and has made several unsuccessful bids for president. He led the formation of the Rally for the Republic party and, with Balladur, remains among its leaders.
Chirac watched from the sidelines as Balladur deftly handled co-rule with his old rival, Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, and such delicate international disputes as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), surging in the opinion polls despite France’s persistent recession and 12 percent unemployment.
But if Balladur’s political success has made him a natural candidate for the presidency, it is clear that Chirac-who faces his best and perhaps last chance to win the post in 1995-will not give way easily.
At last Tuesday’s meeting of the governing center-right alliance, Chirac criticized continuation of France’s 22-month moratorium on nuclear testing, saying this damaged the credibility of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
Media reports said Chirac wondered aloud whether Defense Minister Francois Leotard would have the courage to face public opinion if the policy, set by the previous Socialist government, was changed.
In a thinly veiled rebuke to Chirac, government spokesman Nicolas Sarkozy said the next day: “I don’t think that we were elected to initiate any sort of division. The majority can ill afford the luxury of a split.”
The rivalry already has divided the right wing, which since the March 1993 elections has held 80 percent of the National Assembly seats and is increasingly forcing ministers to take sides.
Alain Juppe, another leader of the Rally for the Republic party, is torn between his role as foreign minister in Balladur’s Cabinet and his longtime loyalty to Chirac, according to political insiders.
But political analysts say Balladur already has decided to run. “For the moment, there is one candidate too many,” said analyst Alain Duhamel. “Both have decided to go ahead for now, but there will come a time when one will have to pull out.”
The division in the conservative camp can only help new Socialist Party leader Michel Rocard. He’s the most popular of an unpopular left wing and could get a boost in the polls if Chirac and Balladur cannot reach agreement on who should withdraw.
For now, Balladur, whose approval rating recently dropped slightly from the mid-50s, is by far the strongest candidate against Rocard.
The next few months will be decisive as Balladur is pressed to produce results with his policies and Chirac unveils his own political program.
“They definitely divide the majority,” Duhamel said.
