Word: giscards
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This generation of Frenchmen had never experienced the transfer of presidential power from one side of the political fence to the other, and they were not sure what to expect after Giscard's regal exit. As it turned out, François Mitterrand's inauguration attempted to set a deliberately plebeian tone. France's new Socialist President arrived at the Elysée Palace dressed in a plain, dark flannel suit and a red tie. On hand to greet him at the top of the steps of the presidential palace was Giscard, who, after a brief handshake...
...Then, as Giscard walked out the front gate to his private car, Mitterrand proceeded to the tapestry-lined Salle des Fêtes to greet several hundred invited guests, including local officials from the Charente region where he was born 64 years ago, Neo-Gaullist Leader Jacques Chirac in his capacity as mayor of Paris, and several Communist members of Parliament. Most conspicuous were the scores of Socialists who had assembled to witness their leader's triumph, such as Lionel Jospin, Mitterrand's successor as party chief, and Pierre Mendès-France, 74, former Socialist Premier...
...such fellow Socialists as former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Greek Actress and Parliamentarian Melina Mercouri-Mitterrand proceeded to the Left Bank and a new ceremony of his own: a pilgrimage to the Panthéon that provided a television spectacular that was even better orchestrated than Giscard's farewell...
Meanwhile, Giscard has repaired to his château near the Loire Valley town of Authon, in possible imitation of Charles de Gaulle, who spent twelve years in his country house before returning to power in 1958. Giscard plans to start work on his memoirs while awaiting the anguished call that he believes will inevitably come after Mitterrand-as he foresees it-has crippled France's economy and its political institutions. "In my Loire Valley retreat," Giscard had mused bitterly in a pre-election allusion to his possible defeat, "I will be the most popular man in France...
...Mitterrand needed a moderate Premier who could reassure a nation still caught uneasily between jubilation and the jitters over the novelty of a Socialist in the Elysée Palace. But he could not accept another bloodless technocrat of the kind that he had criticized in the Giscard regime. He needed a political figure with a popular touch. No one fit that description better than Pierre Mauroy, 52. The big (6 ft. 2 in.) burly mayor of the northern industrial center of Lille, Mauroy (pronounced Mawr-wah) is an archetypal man of the north, pragmatic, hardworking and direct...