The Greens who did well overall especially in Paris are poised to replace the Communists as the second power on the left

The Greens, who did well overall, especially in Paris, are poised to replace the Communists as the second power on the left in France.This could destabilise Mr Jospin’s coalition. The xenophobic far right, widely written off after it split into two mutually detesting movements two years ago, had mixed results. Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front lost its largest town, Toulon, but won easily in Orange in the Rhÿne valley. Bruno Mégret’s, breakaway Mouvement National Republicain held on to its Marseilles satellite towns, Vitrolles and Marignane.But in many other towns and cities the far-right vote collapsed. Former NF voters flocked back to the “respectable” right, allowing them to defeat the left in a string of towns where there had been a three-way vote in the second round of the municipal elections six years ago.Socialist officials admitted this alone did not explain the loss of bastions of the left such as Rouen, Orleans and Blois. They said exit polls suggested the left had failed to mobilise its traditional core vote, partly because working people felt they were not sharing in the fruits of the economic boom.But the provincial defeats of the left cannot begin to compensate Mr Chirac for the personal embarrassment of the loss of Paris, and to a lesser extent Lyons. In Paris the Socialist candidate, Bertrand Delanoe, won 94 out of 163 seats on the city council with less than 50 per cent of the popular vote.

This was a direct consequence of the split in the centre-right vote between the outgoing mayor, Jean Tiberi (a former friend of Mr Chirac under criminal investigation for corruption) and the official right-wing candidate, Philippe Séguin.Mr Chirac has said privately the “sombrero of defeat” must be placed on Mr Séguin’s head. Mr Séguin says the defeat is the rejection of the allegedly corrupt Paris town hall “machine”, created when Mr Chirac was Mayor from 1977 to 1995.The double electoral lesson last weekend was that the centre-right can win when united, but that President Chirac may be less and less able to unite the right.. Charles Haughey, the most controversial Republic of Ireland politician of the past half-century, was rushed to hospital early yesterday after suffering a heart attack at his home outside Dublin He was said to be critical but stable. A spokesman for Beaumont Hospital in Dublin described his cardiac condition as life-threatening. Charles Haughey, the most controversial Republic of Ireland politician of the past half-century, was rushed to hospital early yesterday after suffering a heart attack at his home outside Dublin He was said to be critical but stable. A spokesman for Beaumont Hospital in Dublin described his cardiac condition as life-threatening.
Mr Haughey, 75, retired from political life in 1992, resigning after disclosures that he had authorised the tapping of journalists’ telephones. But the man who, as leader of Fianna Fail, was three times Irish Prime Minister has been very much in the public eye in the past few years because of revelations that during his career he had accepted IR£1.3m (about £1m) from Ben Dunne, a supermarket magnate in Dublin.Mr Haughey resolutely denied this for some time, caving in only when incontrovertible evidence was produced at an official tribunal of inquiry.

His admission was seen as a public humiliation, and he is regularly described as “disgraced” in Irish newspapers. There was speculation that he might face imprisonment for obstructing the tribunal, but proceedings against him have been delayed.Amid much scepticism, his representatives said last year that he was terminally ill with prostate cancer and lengthy public appearances at a tribunal which is investigating payments to politicians would harm his health. As a result, he has in recent weeks been giving evidence only for an hour a day, and in private.His wife and four children were at his bedside yesterday. He was on a ventilator and under heavy sedation.In terms of Anglo-Irish relations, he will always be associated with the arms trial episode of the early 1970s when he was accused, as Irish Finance Minister, of conspiring to import arms and ammunition to be distributed to nationalists in Northern Ireland.

He denied the charges and was acquitted.From then on, however, rumours that he had been involved in shady financial dealings were augmented by the perception that he carried a whiff of republican sulphur. Northern Unionists always harboured the deepest of suspicions of him.The present Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail, Bertie Ahern, has to some extent succeeded in dissociating the party from the Haughey era, leading a reasonably popular government at a time of unprecedented prosperity in the Republic of Ireland.. Tanks moved onto the streets of the city at the centre of Macedonia’s Albanian rebellion for the first time yesterday as security forces stepped up their desperate campaign against the guerrillas, and the West pledged its support to the Macedonian government. Tanks moved onto the streets of the city at the centre of Macedonia’s Albanian rebellion for the first time yesterday as security forces stepped up their desperate campaign against the guerrillas, and the West pledged its support to the Macedonian government.
Truckloads of soldiers poured into the besieged city of Tetovo where special police units have been fighting the guerrillas of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) for six days. At least 10 tanks arrived as the army deployed in force here for the first time.On a second front near the border with Kosovo, villages occupied by the rebels came under heavy shelling.There are widespread fears that the violence could escalate into civil war between Macedonia’s Slav majority, and the Albanian minority, who make up at least a quarter of the population. Around half of the conscript army is Albanian, and the NLA has issued a general call to arms and ordered Albanian soldiers to desert the Macedonian army.In southern Serbia’s Presevo valley, a second group of rebels broke a Nato-brokered ceasefire and fired on Yugoslav troops yesterday, according to the Serbian government.Nato troops from the K-For peacekeeping force are moving up to the border between Kosovo and Macedonia to reinforce patrols and cut off rebel supply lines, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the Nato secretary-general said yesterday. The guerrillas move freely across the border, and the rebellion in Macedonia has been supplied out of UN-administered Kosovo, under the nose of the international community.The Macedonian Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, has condemned K-For’s failure to seal the border, and blamed the international community for allowing a rebellion to develop, which now threatens the stability of the Balkans.So far, Nato has resisted calls to intervene militarily against the rebels in Macedonia.Explosions echoed in the mountains yesterday just miles from a part of the border where the K-For troops are likely to deploy.

Mr Georgievski, said tanks and heavy artillery were bombarding villages occupied by rebels after they were forced out of Tanusevci, on the Kosovo border, by K-For, two weeks ago.There was heavy fighting in Tetovo, 25 miles west of the capital city, Skopje, overnight and yesterday morning The guerrillas have occupied hills overlooking the city. For six days, Macedonian special police units have bombarded the hills. But they have failed to dislodge the rebels.Security forces unleashed a barrage of heavy fire yesterday on a mediaeval Ottoman fortress the rebels have been using to defend the hillside, but a police spokesman said they were unable to drive them out.As the army moved in yesterday afternoon, Tetovo fell quiet for the first time in days.The Macedonian military strategy has looked completely ineffective so far, and their bombardment of the hills has only served to give the guerrillas exactly the high-profile campaign they wanted. There are reports of new recruits turning up at NLA camps by the hour.The military campaign, which the United States, Nato and the Europan Union all pledged their support for yesterday, has also included indiscriminate firing on civilian areas. At least one civilian has been killed in Tetovo.Hundreds of Albanians fled the city yesterday, according to a spokesman for German K-For troops based in the city to support operations in Kosovo, and there were reports of refugees from Tetovo arriving in Albania.