Word: florentin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Florentin. Ironically enough, it was De Gaulle who set the rules for France's first direct presidential election since 1848-and it was he who was ambushed by them. "The stupidest thing of my life," he reportedly muttered afterward. The rule of 50% -or-a-runoff gave everybody, including Gaullist voters, a free and harmless chance to dissent. They could demonstrate distaste for his haughty ways and still set things straight at the runoff. It was a free swing at the genera], and swing they...
...final choice is now between De Gaulle and Mitterrand, whom Frenchmen call "le beau Francois" for his looks, "le Florentin" for his political suppleness. One of eight children of a Cognac railroad clerk, Mitterrand climbed to prominence through sheer brilliance and an inborn political knack for being all things to all people. Though his vest-pocket party, the left-of-center Democratic Socialist Union of the Resistance, has never amounted to much, his adaptability shoehorned him into no fewer than eleven revolving coalition Cabinets of the Fourth Republic. For at least two of his Cabinet stints, Mitterrand is given high...