Seven weeks ago, French President Jacques Chirac impetuously decided to call a snap election, hoping that unhappy voters would give him a new mandate to push ahead on the tough economic reforms aimed at making his country ready to join the European common currency in 1999. But the French instead took the opportunity to slap Chirac and his austerity program, demolishing the right-wing majority in the National Assembly and installing rival Socialist Lionel Jospin as Prime Minister. Now the white-haired, square-jawed Jospin will share power with Chirac in an arrangement the French charmingly call "cohabitation."
Rarely has any political leader inflicted...
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