Don't be surprised if Jacques Chirac obliges. The French president has already gotten a 15 percent boost in the polls out of France's progress to the final; presenting the trophy to Les Bleus while wrapped self-consciously in a soccer scarf will no doubt bring Chirac even greater political gain. He shouldn't, therefore, be too worried that crowds are already calling for Zinedine "Zizou" Zidane, the striker who scored two of France's goals, to be elected president. That will be far more troubling to Jean-Marie Le Pen: The fact that a whole nation is cheering for the son of Algerian immigrants, not to mention the rest of a team that Le Pen described as "unrepresentative of France," could be a body blow to his Front National.
Victoire! France's Cup Flows Over
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PARIS: They partied all night in St. Denis, suburban home of the Stade de
France. Anywhere between 800,000 and 1.5 million of them partied all night
on the Champs-Elysées. Even in far-flung London, ex-pats danced in the
fountains of Trafalgar Square till dawn. France's surprise 3-0 victory over Brazil in the World Cup final Sunday
has prompted what one Parisian daily, France-Soir, called a "tricolor
orgasm" -- one that looks set to blend seamlessly into Tuesday's Bastille
Day celebrations. Writing in Le Parisien, one journalist even suggested
that July 12 now become an official holiday, equal to July 14; a move, he
said, that would "unite the two faces of the French revolution."