Home base for President Chirac, Correz has traditionally been a right- wing stronghold. However, Sunday's elections have seen a clear shift in the power struggle with the Left all set to capture the entire region, despite the hectic campaigning that had been undertaken by Chirac and his wife, Bernadette. As the dust from the elections settles down, left-wing parties, including the ruling Socialists, get together later in the week to sort out the issues and have common candidates, the Greens have a new found negotiating strength. The Greens will not only press for more of their candidates for the position of mayors in several key cities where the Left is likely to win for the first time in over 30 years but the Greens are also expected to draw some big concessions from the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in its policies, especially on environment, power and transportation. With these votes in their bags, the Greens have clearly demonstrated that the Socialists cannot hope to win the next year's parliamentary elections without the support of the Greens and hence have to make these concessions in the coming few months in order to appease the environmentalists.
Some concessions are due to be made on the Right also.
The RPR was quite stunned by the performance of Tiberi, who had been disparaged and discredited in the French media in the last few months. Now the RPR has no option but to publicly hug Tiberi again and the astute mayor realizes that the balance has swung back in his favor. He has already called for a reunification of the RPR and urged the two lists to be combined for the second and final round, slated for this Sunday. The Divide Can astrologers correctly predict earthquakes. T.K. Dutta and Ajai Bhambi argue it out.