Chirac Will Step Down on Tuesday

PARIS —  Conservative French Premier Jacques Chirac will submit his resignation to Socialist President Francois Mitterrand on Tuesday after failing in his bid for the presidency, his spokesman said today.

Spokesman Denis Baudoin said Chirac has requested an appointment with Mitterrand on Tuesday afternoon and will formally deliver his letter of resignation at that time.

Mitterrand defeated Chirac by 54% to 46% in Sunday’s presidential election, dealing the French right its worst blow at the ballot box in 30 years. (Story, Page 4.)

Final official results issued by the Interior Ministry today showed that Mitterrand garnered 16.7 million votes. Chirac, leader of the Rally for the Republic party, won 14.2 million votes.

Coalition Crumbling

Most political observers predict that Mitterrand will replace Chirac with Michel Rocard, a skilled technocrat and former left-wing extremist now converted to social democracy.

Rocard, 57, served as agriculture minister while the Socialists held power after Mitterrand first won the presidency in 1981. He once challenged Mitterrand for the leadership of the party, but campaigned actively for the president and all rifts between the two men appear to have been healed.

The premier is not constitutionally obliged to step down after the election of a president, but French republican tradition dictates that he do so.

Chirac’s 28-member government will automatically resign along with him.

The center-right coalition that Chirac led for the last two years was crumbling visibly under the shock of Sunday’s stinging loss, which appeared to change the political landscape.

Lowest in 30 Years

Chirac’s vote total was the lowest by the right’s candidate in the 30 years of the Fifth Republic.

Mitterrand received a critical pledge that centrist parliamentarians will not obstruct his formation of a moderate government, relegating Chirac’s neo-Gaullist party to the opposition benches.

The Socialist Party appeared to be pressing for an early general election to capitalize on Mitterrand’s victory and try to regain power in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.

Party First Secretary Lionel Jospin said the question of who controlled Parliament should be resolved and he quoted an opinion poll saying the socialists would win a landslide.