French to get more police and tax cuts

PM declares a republic of neighbourhoods.

The French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, promised to act against crime and illegal immigration yesterday, to address the public concern about security exploited by the extreme right in the recent presidential and general elections.

Setting out his government's programme in a lively speech warmly received by the conservative MPs who now form the majority in the national assembly, he said it would create 13,500 new jobs in the next five years in the police and gendarmerie.

Procedures for assessing the right of asylum would be speeded up, he added.

He painted a France in which the political process will be opened up to the public, the bureaucracy will be slimmer, and citizens will have a greater say in local government and public services.

Analysts attributed the record level of abstention in the presidential and parliamentary elections in May and June to the political class being out of sync with the public, and the extreme right's vote as a mark of disenchantment.

Mr Raffarin said his government would work to build a "republic of neighbourhoods" in which decisions would no longer be taken in Paris but would be devolved to local and regional councils.

He would make France more democratic and open to its citizens through decentralisation and local democracy. Social dialogue and referendums would bring the state closer to the people.

He reiterated the promise of a 5% tax cut made by Jacques Chirac in his presidential campaign, and said it was time to put a stop to the brain drain of scientists and the flight of footballers and tennis players to foreign lands.

A glum-looking Lionel Jospin, who set out his Socialist coalition government's programme in a dry speech five years ago, listened immobile, his head propped on one hand.

The civil service, notoriously slow and tied up in red tape, would be reformed to provide a "true administration of service," Mr Raffarin said.

As civil servants retired - 807,000 are expected to go by 2007 - some departmental staff would be reduced, some stabilised and some increased.

Avoiding the word privatisation, anathema to public sector unions, Mr Raffarin said shares would be sold in the electricity and gas utilities but the state would keep the majority holding.

The civil service status of the utilities' employees and their generous pensions would not be touched, but the public services, which are generally popular in France, would have to move towards guaranteeing a minimum service: an objective which the unions have fiercely resisted.