Word: leftist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Paris stock market, prices plunged and the franc hit a twelve-year low as investors paled at the prospect of Mitterrand's sweeping nationalization and economic reform plans. The major political parties began gearing up for a decisive parliamentary election that could lead to either a leftist majority or a paralyzing constitutional deadlock. Giscard and Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist leader, clashed violently, endangering the survival of their strained coalition. The Communist Party, which had supported Mitterrand in the final round of the presidential contest, was clamoring for Cabinet posts as the price of past and future votes...
...years the same family, in spirit, had been in power. A large part of the country, particularly the underprivileged classes and the youth, will finally feel, we hope, that it is better liked, better understood and better protected." Virtually no one, apart from Socialist and Communist idealogues, saw the leftist victory as a sign of popular support for Mitterrand's nationalization and economic reform program. Rather, as Journalist Jean-François Revel put it, Giscard's "strange defeat was due to the most common illness among those who exercise power: the loss of contact with reality...
Obviously a center-right majority elected on that platform would make it impossible for Mitterrand to put through his economic and social reforms. The President-elect has said that if he did not get a leftist majority, he would try to govern with whatever majority did emerge from the elections. But his room for maneuver would be severely limited. If he attempted to form a coalition with the center, for example, he would almost surely arouse the hostility or outright opposition of the Communists...
...Soviet arms buildup in Europe and the invasion of Afghanistan. Yet the Socialist leader never explained clearly what it was he would have done differently. As for relations with the U.S., chillier days may be ahead, if only because of the ideological chasm between Paris' new leftist government and the conservative Reagan Administration...
...allegations raised a number of questions about GRAPO and the real perpetrators of last week's attacks - given the country's complex and conspiratorial politics. For one thing, González de Suso is a political liberal and hence an un likely target for a leftist group. GRAPO, skeptics noted, has materialized at other critical moments in Spain's political life, each time to carry out operations that might easily, in truth, have been the work of right-wing hit squads. At the very least, the Madrid daily Diario 16 headlined, GRAPO was a leftist name with...