Word: giscards
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...several days after the election, Giscard toyed with the idea of forming a new centrist "liberal" party aimed at blocking Chirac's relentless drive for power. But Giscard's U.D.F. followers in parliament, anxious to hold their seats, seemed far more interested in making a deal with Chirac than in sharing the ex-President's martyrdom. Said one U.D.F. deputy: "I can understand the President's pain and recriminations. But right now we have to keep our fists in our pockets and try to save the house...
...disappointed Giscard thus shelved his plans for a new party. Instead of running for a lowly parliamentary seat, he decided to withdraw to his country estate, much as De Gaulle did in 1946. The defeated President was hoping that a taste of chaotic Socialist government would make him what he calls "the most popular man in France," and pave the way for an eventual return to power. "Giscard is like a woman who has been rejected," says a confidant. "He can't try to impose himself. He has to wait for the call...
Franco-Soviet Relations. Mitterrand is likely to take a harder line toward the Soviet Union than Giscard-despite his relationship with Moscow's most loyal European Communist Party. The President-elect strongly denounced the Afghanistan invasion and, as one senior British diplomat observed, "has no illusions about Soviet motivations and intentions." Pravda, which praised Giscard's commitment to detente and was openly rooting for him in the election, lamented last week that the Socialist leader would probably adopt the " 'tough positions' of the Western side...
Middle East. As a much stronger supporter of Israel and the Camp David process than Giscard, Mitterrand will almost certainly back off from the overtly mercantile pro-Arab policy of his predecessor. In a rare moment of agreement, both Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and opposition Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres hailed Mitterrand last week as "a true friend of Israel...
...such prickly questions as agricultural subsidies, fisheries and steel to be delayed as the French concentrate on their domestic situation. Perhaps the election's most significant effect on the EC will be a weakening of the predominant Paris-Bonn axis, which depended on the close personal relationship of Giscard and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The Chancellor was said to be shattered by Giscard's fall. He sent a formal congratulatory telegram to fellow socialist Mitterrand, whom he barely knows, but personally telephoned condolences to his defeated conservative friend...