Jospin attacks poll rival Chirac

PARIS, France – Within days of announcing his candidacy in the French presidential elections, Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has used his first campaign speech to attack his closest rival, Jacques Chirac.

Socialist Jospin, 64, criticised incumbent President Chirac's past seven years in office at a campaign speech on Sunday.

"Two years of bad faith plus five years of passivity make seven years of questionable presidency," Jospin said.

"For two years, when the president could have acted freely, he delegated power to a prime minister who followed policies that ran counter to the undertakings he had made to the French

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people."

He added: "For five years, confronted with a new prime minister...(the president) finally became the representative of an almost protocol-style presidency, inactive but critical, when in my eyes the president should be active and positive."

Jospin, who announced his decision to stand in the forthcoming poll last week, received the backing of 99.07 percent of his party and is its sole candidate.

Under a banner carrying the slogan "Preside differently," Jospin said France's next president should not enjoy immunity before the law and vowed to change the legal statutes should he win office.

Chirac, 69, used his status as head of state to avoid questioning by French judges as a witness in probes into clandestine funding for his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party.

"The next president of the Republic should no longer benefit from legal privilege," Jospin said.

"He, the French leader, cannot be the only Frenchman not subject to the common law."

Most opinion polls show Chirac and Jospin running neck-and-neck ahead of the election being held on April 21, with a runoff between the two top candidates on May 5. Parliamentary elections will be held a month later on June 9 and 16.

Jospin lost to Chirac in the last presidential election in 1995 but led the Socialist Party to victory in parliamentary elections in 1997.

No serving prime minister has ousted an incumbent president, and the onus is squarely on Jospin, who came to power unexpectedly in the early elections called by Chirac in 1997, to convince French voters that he has the right qualities.

Jospin, a former economics professor has insisted he be judged on his record, primarily his boast of bringing dole queues down to 18-year lows.

A further 17 presidential candidates have declared their intention to stand.

The winner will sit for only five years instead of seven following a referendum in 2000.