Word: balladur
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...Foreign Minister Alain Juppe -- a supporter of conservative candidate Jacques Chirac -- said he was "scandalized" by the leak and ordered an investigation. Interior Ministry officials, who reportedly gave the story to the Paris daily Le Monde and ordered the Americans to leave, are catching flak. They support Premier Edouard Balladur, whose presidential campaign was already tangled in a wiretapping scandal. "It's a campaign maneuver," said Philippe Vasseur, a Chirac backer. "They were trying to create a smoke screen." In Washington, State Department officials said it was unlikely that the four accused Americans who are U.S. diplomats would depart before...
French government and intelligence officials tell Sancton they believe the Interior ministry publicized the affair now to divert attention from a wiretapping scandal that has crippled the presidential campaign of French Premier Edouard Balladur. At the White House today, McCurry dropped a similar suggestion. Sancton notes that rumors of these activities have been floating around for two years; U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman was informed in late January...
That would be a moral victory at best, since political analysts are virtually unanimous in predicting an easy win for Gaullist Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. Jospin's task thus will be to heal, as best he can, the rifts in his divided party and put in a credible performance against Balladur. If he fails on either count--and especially if he is eliminated in the first round on April 23--the party that swept Francois Mitterrand into the Elysee in 1981 and dominated French politics for the better part of a decade could split apart or collapse like an overripe...
...What Balladur does not have to worry about is a serious challenge from the left. A month ago, the polls showed outgoing European Commission President Jacques Delors, a Socialist, well out in front. But Delors' decision not to run left the Socialists without a credible candidate. None of the announced hopefuls--former Education Minister Lionel Jospin, 57; former Culture Minister Jack Lang, 55; and party leader Henri Emmanuelli, 49--has a broad national following. As things stand, the Socialists might well be eliminated in the first stage of the two-round presidential contest on April...
That could leave Balladur and Chirac facing each other in the May 7 runoff. Chirac's hopes would then depend on winning substantial support among traditionally leftist voters. He is already wooing them with a social program that includes emergency job programs for the long-term unemployed and on-the-job training for young people. But credibility is a problem. Chirac has changed his views so often--he went from state dirigisme in the '70s to Reagan-style free-marketry in the '80s--that many people are skeptical...