Word: gaullists
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...Crisis. Chirac cannot go too far in opposing Giscard without triggering a confrontation that would only weaken the government majority and benefit the left. Moreover, much of the pending legislation in the Assembly was hatched while Chirac was still Premier; this blunts any credible Gaullist opposition to these measures. But the Gaullists will stay arms-length from the President from now on. They may oppose direct elections to a European parliament and object to ratifying the International Monetary Fund accords reached last January in Jamaica, an agreement they view as symptomatic of Giscard's shift to supranationalism. Beyond these...
Chirac's political turnabouts-first against Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the Gaullist candidate in 1974, then against President Valery Giscard d'Estaing-have earned him a reputation as an opportunist. Chaban still privately refers to him as a "traitor." Others have called him "Jacques the Knife," and some cynical members of Giscard's Independent Republicans characterized the dramatic rally at which he launched his renamed party as "smacking of Nuremberg." Those who know Chirac well-including foreign diplomats-are positive he is no "closet fascist," though he is staunchly conservative. He is against nationalization and NATO, for free...
...controlled the premiership in France. Giscard handed on the title to a highly respected but apolitical economist, Raymond Barre, thus making it clear that the President intended to keep all the reins of power firmly in his own hands. That was quite in keeping with the tradition of the Gaullist "presidential regime." But Giscard could count on unflagging support only from the 121 members of his tiny Independent Republican Party and its centrist allies, while the Gaullists still control 174 of the 490 seats in the National Assembly...
...suave Giscard and the hard-driving Chirac had once been allied -indeed Chirac had temporarily split the Gaullists to back Giscard for the presidency in 1974. More recently, the two had been rivals, and while they maneuvered for power, the opposition Socialist-Communist union de la gauche won an impressive 53% in last spring's cantonal elections (for regional representative assemblies). The two leaders differed sharply about how to deal with the leftist gains before the next Assembly elections in 1978. Chirac favored a hard-line conservatism. Giscard urged a reformist approach that might win moderates away from...
...Chirac's place, the President put a much more genial soul. Formerly Minister of Foreign Trade and for five years Vice President of the European Economic Commission, Barre was notable in the world of Gaullist grandeur for living in a small, book-lined apartment, driving an old Citroën and carrying his own luggage. A portly ex-professor, Barre is highly regarded in academic circles for his textbook entitled Economic Politique. Giscard called him "the best economist in France and therefore the best man to fight the inflation." Barre is expected to initiate spartan economic measures, like higher...