This article originally appeared in the May 29, 1995, issue.

Pulling Punches. A confrontation between the two contenders in front of millions of viewers is, since 1974, a crucial part of the French electoral ritual. This time the television debate proved a great bore. The actors were good, knew their lines, spoke well and avoided every trap. Yet it was a flop because there was no tension, no real passion. Both men had adopted "change" as their motto. Both also wanted to alter things so that they would remain fundamentally the same. They jointly accepted the framework of existing society.

Within that framework, they begged to differ. While Chirac waffled, Jospin made concrete proposals: He would reduce the presidential mandate from seven to five years; cut the workweek from thirty-nine to thirty-seven hours without a reduction in pay; and stop privatization. In all this he was opposed by Chirac, who was now less the populist and more the champion of private enterprise. But Jospin, who did not utter the word socialism, at no point presented his reforms as part of his vision of a different society, It was like a polite confrontation between two competent accountants.

The restraint was conscious, part of a strategy. For Chirac, assured by the pollsters of an advantage, the problem was to avoid a clash, which might revive his reputation as an adventurer. For Jospin, it was to appear as a man ripe for the presidency, on this or on the next occasion. Fighting only for a draw, Jospin may have lost his last opportunity. But speaking in front of 20,000 people in Paris and twice that number in Toulouse, a determined, confident Jospin sounded as if he believed in his promise of victory. As Chirac showed signs of panic, reviving the idea of a referendum on Europe to win some de Villiers and Le Pen votes, all sorts of rumors began to spread. The trend was clearly leftward, but the movement failed to defeat the arithmetic.

'When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won'

So it's back to normal. The oracles finally got it right. The Mitterrand interlude is over. The right has the control of all the commanding heights. Chirac and the patronat may tolerate some wage increases for a while, but soon the drive toward a common European currency and the dictation of the international financial establishment will impose their logic. The French will then discover the true nature of Chirac's populism.

Among Socialists the satisfaction of having done so unexpectedly well is still outweighed by disappointment. They really believed in the miracle. In defeat, however, there is one consolation. A victory of the left would have put to the test the possibility, at this stage, of carrying out a moderate Keynesian policy of expansion within a European Union dominated by the Maastricht Treaty, and to do so through incentives from above, without mass mobilization of the people. A second disenchantment would have had disastrous results. The left can now use the delay to invent democratic procedures to facilitate such pressure from below and devise a project attractive enough for the reforms to spread beyond France's borders.

But time is short. This election has revealed the explosive depth of popular discontent. If unemployment persists, the gap between rich and poor widens, the welfare system crumbles and the left provides no outlet, someone else will. History is never re-enacted in the same costumes according to the same scenario, but, pace Marx, it does not have to repeat itself as farce. Le Pen, as the murder of the young Moroccan reminds us, is far from farcical.

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