Word: giscards
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President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was assailed for callously leaving Paris on a private weekend the night of the tragedy. Premier Raymond Barre made matters worse for the government when he carelessly told a television interviewer that the bomb was "aimed at Jews worshiping in a synagogue, but struck four innocent Frenchmen who crossed the Rue Copernic." Without meaning to, Barre had implied that the Jews inside were neither completely French nor completely innocent...
...Paris, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing told Tariq Aziz that the crisis was a "bilateral affair," best solved by the region's Islamic states. An Elysée spokesman later said that no spare parts for French weapons in the Iraqi arsenal would be forthcoming while the fighting continued. But he said that France would honor a $1.6 billion arms agreement with Iraq involving the sale of 60 Mirage F-l jet fighters, as well as tanks, antitank weapons, radar, guided missiles and patrol boats-all part of an Iraqi attempt to diversify its weapons inventory away...
There are even press laws which prescribe stiff penalties for those who offend the "honour and dignity" of the president. That these laws date from 1881 did not deter de Gaulle from invoking them 118 times while in office. So when Giscard deigned to hold a press conference over the Bokassa affair, he had little difficulty dodging uncomfortable questions. With such an arsenal of press restrictions, Giscard worries far less than Jimmy Carter about public invective. The press' lack of freedom directly enhances the president's power, permitting him to play up the laudable and tone down the culpable...
...GISCARD'S position has evolved considerably from his 1974 role as the "people's president." During that election, he ran what many perceived as an American-style campaign: psoing for informal pictures with friends and family while playing accordian, or standing bare-chested in a soccer stadium. Once in office, he even invited garbage collectors to dinner at the Elysee Palace and once a month staged a televised meal with an "average French family" at their home. But that populist touch has now all but vanished. Today he is aloof, unabashedly aristocratic, and fashions himself a closet literary critic with...
Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote how, on the eve of the French Revolution, the monarchy seemed inexpugnable even to those men who were about to destroy it. His words still apply today. With all his monarchical attributes, Giscard stands to be the first of the Fifth Republic's presidents to complete a full first term and launch a second. Long live the king...