Chirac's first presidency
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In the summer following the elections, a series of shocks hit Paris and the new regime, as bombs exploded in the RER stations of St-Michel and Port Royal. Planted by an extremist Algerian Islamic group, the deadly attacks played into the hands of the far right and diminished public confidence in the government as guardians of law and order. By November, public confidence in Alain Juppé's government had collapsed, and over a period of three weeks some five million people took to the streets of Paris in protest against arrogant, elitist politicians and economic austerity measures targeting state employees. There were typical scenes of Parisian revolt: railway sleepers being burnt at the Arc de Triomphe; tear-gas canisters, petrol bombs and stones flying between students and riot police; jazz bands, balloons and food stalls in place de la République. Despite the cold and the stress, the majority of Parisians – and even the police – showed sympathy to the strikers. Public transport was almost entirely shut down, and people walked, cycled, roller-bladed and hitched to work. Many commented on the feeling of public elation and the sense of solidarity on the streets. They felt truly Parisian.

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, punctuated by revelations of illegal funding of election campaigns, politicians taking bribes and dirty money changing hands during privatizations. In the past, politicians feathering their own nests never roused much public anger, but ordinary people, faced with job insecurity and falling living standards, were now becoming 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.

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 the Paris church of St-Ambroise, in the 11^e arrondissement, 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.

For many young blacks or Arabs seeking work, particularly young men, the ring road dividing the city from its suburbs might as well be a wall of steel. Unemployment in some suburbs runs as high as fifty percent. In July 1996, Juppé announced yet another package of measures to create jobs in the most deprived suburban estates, but tax incentives used to lure in businesses have tended to attract fast food companies employing outsiders. Relatively, the city centre is often caricatured as a rich ghetto, yet the number of SDF – Sans Domicile Fixe, or homeless – has been estimated at as many as 50,000. In 1998, the minister of employment and solidarity, Martine Aubry, committed 21 billion francs to combat social exclusion. Some 350,000 new jobs were created in the public sector, but whether this addressed the root causes of unemployment and social exclusion is doubtful.

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 with the introduction of a 35-hour working week, but his government was soon hit by a series of scandals. Nor was the Socialists' popularity aided by the trial in March 1999 of the Mitterrand-era cabinet ministers involved in the tragic tainted blood scandal of the mid-1980s. Through alleged stalling the government at the time had failed to implement blood-screening, with the result that by the time of the trial 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.

The Right was not exempt from scandal either. In 1998, Jean Tiberi – conservative Paris mayor since Chirac's move to the presidency in 1995 – was implicated in a scandal involving subsidized real-estate and salaries for fake jobs. This reflected badly on Chirac, recalling the string of town hall scandals that had taken place while he was mayor of Paris, including accusations that contracts were awarded in return for kickbacks. As if this wasn't bad enough, Chirac himself was also accused of using some £300,000 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 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.

If the mainstream parties weren't faring too well, neither were the extremists. In April 1998 Le Pen temporarily alienated himself from the political scene by assaulting and punching a woman Socialist candidate who was standing against his daughter in the National Assembly elections while the camera was still rolling. The party was split, and it seemed for a time that the far right was finished. They certainly didn't have much to say when France won the World Cup in July 1998 with a multi-ethnic team. The victory at the new Stade de France, in the multi-ethnic Paris suburb of St-Denis, prompted a wave of popular patriotism that ran across the colour barrier. That night, the Champs-Élysées became a river of a million cheering fans, and "une France tricolore et multicolore" was celebrated all over the country.