France the Leap in the Dark

Assembly elections promise more questions than answers

It seemed last week as if all of France was on the campaign trail. Beneath a tent on a mud-covered field outside Paris, the French Communists dined on sausage, beer and angry denunciations of the country's 10.1% unemployment rate. Meanwhile, in a carpeted convention center on the other side of the city, the far-right National Front feasted on smoked ham, wine and heated accusations of "foreign submersion," a veiled reference to France's burgeoning community of North African immigrants.

The conservative opposition put no fewer than three major candidates on the road. Jacques Chirac, the former Premier and current mayor of Paris,...

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