Word: communistic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first round, at least, the voters of France had trooped to the polls in record numbers to give an unexpected boost to Giscard's coalition, confounding pollsters and causing discreet jubilation in most democratic capitals of the world. When those votes were counted, the Socialist, Communist and Left Radical alliance had failed to gain a majority, lagging 1.2%, or 334,213 votes, behind the center-right coalition headed by Giscard and Gaullist Leader Jacques Chirac. A number of ultraleftist parties not affiliated with the coalition polled 952,661 votes. Although the Socialist-Communist alliance could conceivably recoup its losses...
...message was clear: France's uneasy electorate, fed up with squabbling on the left, uncertain of the dimensions of Communist intentions, played safe. "I expected as much," said Giscard coolly, as he watched first-round returns from the presidential Chateau de Rambouillet, 34 miles from Paris, "I didn't speak Saturday night for nothing." He was referring to a persuasive election-eve address on national television. A victory for the deeply divided leftist parties could not ensure a stable government in France, he warned. Moreover, "though the French economy has improved, it is still very fragile. The shock...
...Communists and Socialists characteristically attributed their shortfall not to Giscard, but to one another. Communist Party Boss Georges Marchais claimed that the left's score would have been higher had the Socialists agreed to Communist proposals for updating the left's Common Program, including a sweeping nationalization of industry. Mitterrand offered his own explanation for the poor showing: "The Communist Party, acting in its own partisan interests, had launched an unjust and inopportune polemical attack on the Socialists that broke the dynamism of the union of the left...
...exchange for Mitterrand's surrender. Marchais agreed to back better-placed Socialist candidates in the second round. Both men calculated that the combined left parties could still pick up a slim majority in the National Assembly, provided Communist voters could be commanded to back Socialist candidates; at the same time, wavering Socialist voters would be persuaded to vote for Communist candidates in districts where they were stronger than the Socialists...
...proclaimed that a victory for the government forces would mean that "tomorrow there will be even more daily difficulties and privation, layoffs and unemployment, authoritarianism and degradation in the quality of life " For the left, the crucial question was how well the votes would be transferred from Socialist to Communist candidates. It was generally assumed that in the disciplined Communist electoral corps, 80% could be counted on to obey their leaders' instructions to vote for a front-running Socialist. The heterogeneous and individualistic Socialist Party, however, could not be so reliable. It all depended, said a Socialist mayor, Pierre...