Word: chaban
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...left and right under a national banner of pride and grandeur. For 16 years, that tactic kept the U.D.R. (Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic) Party of Charles de Gaulle in power. But now that the U.D.R. is in disarray after the elimination of Gaullist Jacques Chaban-Delmas in last week's first round of balloting for the presidency, the nation has fallen back into its traditional polarities, with Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing, 48, representing the right, and François Mitterrand, 57, leading a Popular Front of leftists that includes the Communist Party...
...have sound reasons for seeking the spoils of Gaullism. It is the Gaullist 15.1% of the vote that Chaban collected that holds the balance of power between Giscard's first-round 32.6% and Mitterrand's 43.2%. For the first time in the campaign, French opinion polls differed last week over the favorite. One showed Giscard edging ahead by 51% to 49%; another found Mitterrand leading by the same margin...
...absolute majority needed to win the presidency in the first round. Thus the main issue was who would come in second and thereby become Mitterrand's opponent in the runoff on May 19. Giscard, who had been drawing away in the polls from his archrival, former Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas, won the competition for second place with about 33% of the vote; Chaban, the "official" Gaullist candidate, came in with roughly...
Political Pizazz. In many ways the most telling element of the first round campaign was the sharp decline and fall of Chaban, who had argued that he alone had the kind of political pizazz needed to stop Mitterrand. The flashy, thrice-wed former Resistance hero not only got the endorsement of the old-line Gaullists, but he ceaselessly flaunted it at rallies of the faithful around the country. Yet Chaban's carefully cultivated image of continuity with the past was plainly unappealing to many Frenchmen, who seem to want a change from the elitist tradition of De Gaulle. Although...
...While Chaban talked of continuity, Giscard and Mitterrand struck a popular response by calling for new approaches. Mitterrand spoke grandly, if vaguely, of "re-establishing justice in our society," while his Communist allies -widely distrusted by the French middle class-tried to keep from being heard at all. For the first time in years, the Socialists and the Communists did not march in the May Day parade in Paris. Giscard, ignoring the fact that he has served in Gaullist cabinets for nine years, argued that "France needs a young face in all fields, including politics. France will have...