Word: edouard
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...accused officers to leave France, and was planning to move a second officer. But the cover was blown on the affair by French presidential-election politics, say officials in both countries. Once a sure bet to succeed Socialist President Francois Mitterrand in the April 23 election, Gaullist Prime Minister Edouard Balladur has recently seen his high poll ratings nose-dive. His campaign was badly damaged by revelations that Pasqua, a Balladur supporter, authorized an illegal wiretap last December on the father-in-law of a judge investigating an illegal campaign-funding scheme in Pasqua's district west of Paris...
...Today, 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...
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...
...Edouard Balladur had left nothing to chance. Everything, from the flowers on his desk to the conspicuously placed photos of his grandchildren, was calculated to project the image of a national father figure. Though there was little suspense--his intentions had long been clear--Balladur's nationally televised address was the biggest political event of the new year. It marked the Gaullist Prime Minister's official entry into a presidential race that could make him the successor to Socialist Francois Mitterrand next May. Speaking from his gilded office, Balladur, 65, promised to run a ``positive, serene and optimistic'' campaign...