NEWS ANALYSIS : Victory Brings Chirac Task of Delivering on Promises : Europe: France’s president-elect must raise salaries and reduce unemployment to avert looming social upheaval.

A grinning Jacques Chirac, the French president-elect, accepted congratulations from world leaders and chatted easily with outgoing President Francois Mitterrand during V-E Day festivities here Monday.

But when the celebrations were over, Chirac began the task of putting together his new government, due to take over sometime next week, certain in the knowledge that his presidential honeymoon may be one of the shortest in French history.

Chirac’s victory over Lionel Jospin, a Socialist, by a margin of about 53% to 47%, has for the first time in 21 years put the conservative descendants of Charles de Gaulle in power in both the National Assembly and the presidency, creating a formidable force for change and a charged atmosphere for social upheaval.

For the conservatives’ opponents on the left, who include major trade unions and advocates for the homeless and jobless, the only avenue for protest until legislative elections in 1998 will be in the streets, where a crisis of confidence in the new government could be born.

And, leaders of those groups say, that is just where they will be if Chirac doesn’t soon deliver on his vague promises to increase salaries in industries where the economic recovery has begun, and, at the same time, reduce unemployment, which now stands at 12.3%--one of the highest rates among leading industrialized nations.

Marc Blondel, general secretary of Workers Force, said Monday that his union plans to press its demands with Chirac. He warned that if they aren’t satisfied with the results, widespread social conflict is possible.

A series of strikes preceded the first round of presidential voting April 23, and more already are planned for this month by workers in the state welfare offices, postal service, state electricity company and national railway line. A teachers strike is scheduled for early next month.

“If we could coordinate all that, and if there is fruitful contact with young people, then something could happen,” Blondel told a French radio station, predicting a widespread protest. He urged employers to raise salaries now, “because otherwise things are going to blow up.”

Chirac knows his first priority must be to create more jobs in a country where 3.3 million people are unemployed. In fact, the president-elect spent most of his five-minute acceptance speech Sunday promising to do just that, vowing to ask just one question of every piece of legislation he proposes: Will it create jobs?

But the president-elect’s weakness during the campaign was his desire to be all things to all people, reflected in an unwillingness to offer concrete proposals to counter unemployment. And many in France are worried because Chirac has a reputation for changing his stand on key issues.

That concern was reflected in a cartoon in Monday’s editions of InfoMatin, a Paris daily, which showed Chirac facing a tall stack of notebooks and muttering, “Darn. Which program was I elected on?”

“The theme of change, in a society profoundly in crisis, is an armed grenade,” InfoMatin’s editor, Marc Jezegabel, wrote in an accompanying editorial. But, he added, “let’s free him to meet his own promises.”

In the tradition of French presidents, Chirac has promised to be leader “of all the French.” He enters one of the most powerful presidencies in the democratic world, with the most solid support of any leader since Georges Pompidou, a Gaullist who left office in 1974.

The conservative coalition in Parliament, led by Chirac’s Rally for the Republic party, holds 480 of the National Assembly’s 577 seats, and two-thirds in the less-powerful Senate. In effect, that means any policy that Chirac supports will become law, unless street protests persuade him to withdraw it.

But, to avoid social unrest, Chirac will need to court Jospin’s supporters as well.

“The right has nearly all the power, which will give it enormous responsibilities,” said Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist premier.

Many on the left, heartened by Jospin’s strong showing, are demanding swift action. Even before the second and final presidential round, Arlette Laguiller, the Trotskyite candidate, had warned of “a third round--in the streets.”

The first referendum on the new president may come as early as next month, in a new round of municipal elections. Chirac’s party runs 21 of France’s 22 regions and 110 of the 230 largest towns and cities; those elections will be the next chance for voters to lodge a protest.