Fears about crime hurt Jospin's campaign

But as the polls keep showing, he's got the touch.

According to a new survey in Paris-Match magazine, Mr Chirac's popularity rating went up six points in August to 61%, while Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's fell two to 52%.

And that was shortly after the latest claims were published in the so-called "cash for tickets" affair, in which he is alleged to have paid out millions of francs in dubiously-acquired money for holidays for his family and friends.

Socialist worries

So there was an unmistakeable air of smugness hanging over his RPR party's end-of-summer universite, or conference, last weekend in the Brittany port of Quimper.

And by the same token the Socialists have been stricken by an untimely case of the jitters.

A president can take credit when the nation is happy, but can as quickly remove himself above the fray when things start to turn

Mr Jospin, who has not officially announced his candidacy for next March's elections but is regarded as almost certain to run, has plenty to worry about.

For a start, the economy has started to falter.

Unemployment, control of which was the Socialists' major achievement, is edging back up, and consumer confidence is flagging.

The rise in crime is now regularly given as the electorate's most pressing concern, and though Mr Jospin can plausibly argue the problem is one of society - not government - there is no question this pre-occupation favours the right.

The cohesion of his own coalition which includes Greens, Communists and Radicals is meanwhile under assault as next year's elections approach.

They need to mark their difference from the Socialists, and so have opened up a regular barrage from the left.

And just to rub it in, Mr Chirac has just managed to walk off with a major victory in his undeclared war with the magistrates looking into his past affairs.

The two men will battle for the keys to the Elysee palace

One of the most tenacious of the judges has been taken off the case for committing a series of procedural errors.

Of course there are eight months to go, and all to play for.

But Mr Chirac can bank on a permanent truth in French politics: that a president can take credit when the nation is happy, but can as quickly remove himself above the fray when things start to turn. His prime minister will carry the can.

And not once in a French presidential election, Mr Jospin must be reflecting ruefully, has a sitting prime minister managed to topple the incumbent.