But a couple of months before the landing, he decided to take a closer look.

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"We'd actually had a value of the business a couple of months before we lost the cliff edge, " she said.

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Riled by the resistance, Mr Hombach dropped his job a couple of months before the election, which the Social Democrats thumpingly lost.

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Nor is securing parliamentary approval when the vote is taken in March, a couple of months before Mr Blair is expected to announce his departure date.

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What happens if things go less well for the economy, if the right eventually gets its act together, and if Mr Jospin's coalition then loses the parliamentary election due (assuming the calendar remains unchanged) to be called just a couple of months before the presidential contest?

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It forms a secondary low on March 9 and then rallies into late April before it undergoes a couple of months of weakness.

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