Chirac's presidency
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On the home front, Chirac's austerity measures, designed to prepare France for European monetary union, provoked a series of damaging strikes in 1995 and 1996, and led to growing popular disenchantment with the idea of closer European integration. The government's standing in the popularity stakes tumbled further as it was hit by a succession of corruption scandals. It was revealed that Prime Minister Alain Juppé was renting a luxury flat in Paris at below-market rates. Accusations of cover-ups and perversion of the course of justice followed, and while in the past politicians feathering their own nests never roused much public anger, now ordinary people, faced with job insecurity and falling living standards, were disgusted by the behaviour of the "elites". Even the normally obsequious right-wing press asked questions about the judiciary's independence, something Chirac had promised to uphold in his election manifesto. The consequences were twofold: a widening of the gulf between the governors and the governed and a boost to the Front National, who played up their corrupt-free image. At municipal elections in June 1995 the Front National gained control of three towns, including the major port of Toulon.

The Algerian bomb attacks, which rocked Paris in the mid-1990s, further played into the hands of the far right and diminished public confidence in the government as guardians of law and order. The home affairs minister, Charles Pasqua, tapped into the general feelings of insecurity and stepped up anti-immigration measures. As a result, around 250,000 people living and working in France had their legal status removed. In March 1996 three hundred Malian immigrants, many of them failed asylum-seekers, sought refuge in a Paris church, only to be forcibly evicted by riot police. A wave of protest marches ensued, but the government only tightened anti-immigration restrictions further. Fury and frustration at discrimination, assault, abuse and economic deprivation erupted into battles on the street, and several young blacks died at the hands of the police, while the right-wing media revelled in images of violent Arab youths. Racist assaults became more common, and xenophobic opinions became accepted platitudes. In such circumstances it seems ironic that in 1996 France called for military intervention in Zaire – however, this was motivated less out of humanitarian concern than for fear that Americans were taking over a traditional French sphere of influence, with the concomitant threat of English gradually replacing French across Central Africa.

Feeling increasingly beleaguered and unable to deliver on the economy, Chirac called a snap parliamentary election in May 1997. His gamble failed spectacularly as he saw the Right trounced by the Socialists. Chirac lost much of his authority and was dubbed by one journalist as the "resident of the Republic". He was forced into a cohabitation with the Socialists, headed by Lionel Jospin who promised new jobs and economic growth, as well as a greater commitment to Europe. Jospin got off to a good start: though unemployment was still high, the economy picked up, and France, along with Germany and Spain, was one of the only countries to reach the European Monetary Union near-target deficit. Jospin also implemented a number of progressive policies, such as the introduction of a 35-hour working week and a 50:50 gender quota for representatives of political parties.

Jospin's government was soon hit by a series of scandals, however, including the resignation of internationally respected finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn over his alleged involvement in a party funding scandal, though he was later acquitted. In 1998 the conservative Paris mayor Jean Tiberi was implicated in a scandal involving subsidized real-estate and salaries for fake jobs. This reflected badly on Chirac, recalling the string of scandals in the Mairie de Paris that took place while he was mayor. As if this wasn't bad enough, Chirac was also accused of using some three million francs in cash from illegal sources to pay for luxury holidays for himself, his family and friends between 1992 and 1995. When investigating magistrates tried to question him he claimed presidential immunity, a position that was upheld by France's highest court, though only as long as he remained in office; the prospect of having to stand trial if he failed to win a second mandate may well have had a galvanizing effect on Chirac's campaign for president in 2002.

The Socialists' popularity fared little better with the trial in 1999 of the Mitterrand-era cabinet ministers involved in the tragic tainted blood scandal of the mid-1980s in which four thousand transfusion recipients had contracted AIDS. The court doled out acquittals and suspended sentences for the three main defendants, including former prime minister, Laurent Fabius; needless to say the verdict was greeted with outrage by the victims and their families and a wave of public cynicism.

If the mainstream parties weren't doing too well, neither were the extremists. In April 1998 Le Pen had managed to alienate himself from the political scene by assaulting and punching a woman Socialist candidate who was standing against his daughter in the National Assembly elections. Consequently, Le Pen was temporarily stripped of his civic rights, including the right to run as a candidate in any election. In order to maintain his influence on the party he had his wife stand in his place, provoking the fury of Bruno Mégret, Le Pen's lieutenant. Disgruntled at being passed over, Mégret tried to stir up revolt within the party, but only succeeded in causing a split, leading him to form his own break-away party, the Mouvement National Républicain. It seemed for a time that the far right was finished.

Sleaze allegations against mainstream politicians, continued, however, and led to growing cynicism among much of the electorate. Symptomatic of a growing lack of interest in the political process was the low turn-out at the referendum held in September 2000 over whether the presidential term should be cut from seven to five years, to coincide with parliamentary elections (and thus reduce the likelihood of a cohabitation). Only thirty percent of the electorate bothered to turn out to vote, with just a narrow majority in favour.