Eurotunnel

The French parliamentary elections of March 1986 produced the expected victory for the moderate right, and the neo-Gaullist Jacques Chirac became Prime Minister for a second time. However, his victory was not an overwhelming one, and with Mitterand having two years of his presidential term still to run, a period of somewhat uneasy ‘cohabitation’ or power-sharing ensued between right and left. Chirac, a fiercely ambitious politician who had stood unsuccessfully against Mitterand in the presidential elections of 1981, had had an uncomfortable experience of the Channel Tunnel. He had been Prime Minister when it was abandoned in 1975. ¹ But his re-emergence did nothing to challenge the project. Indeed, when Foreign Ministers met on 14 April Jean-Bernard Raimond made it clear that the new French Government had the same intentions as the previous administration. Chirac repeated this sentiment when he met Thatcher at Chequers on the 26th, assuring her that the project enjoyed his ‘unqualified support’. ² The French proceeded to secure the legislation necessary for ratification of the Treaty, which was approved by the Senate in June 1987, together with a Déclaration d’Utilité Publique, obtained in May. ³