Word: mitterrand
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...deciding votes. The balloting has no direct effect on the national government; France is a highly centralized country in which the regional councils have little power. But the outcome does signal a public mood of sour discontent that will make the country decidedly more difficult for President Francois Mitterrand, or anyone else, to lead...
...Mitterrand's Socialist Party scarcely looks able to supply any new leadership. It was rejected by more than four-fifths of the voters; the party polled a dismal 18%. But the Socialists had been expected to lose ground; the real surprise was that voters turned their back on the right as well. The Union for France, a coalition of the two main conservative parties, reaped a mere 33%, down 4 points from its share in the last regional elections in 1986. Just under half (49%) of those who cast ballots chose to leap out of the political mainstream altogether...
...fringes, two environmentalist parties, the Greens and the newly formed Ecology Generation, pulled nearly 14%, more than double any previous share. The two, however, are as much rivals as allies. Ecology Generation is led by Brice Lalonde, who is Environment Minister in Mitterrand's Cabinet and is called "the Pink Submarine" by his opponents; they view him as a subversive Socialist who uses ecology as a front to promote his ambitions. Lalonde, in turn, calls Antoine Waechter, the leader of the Greens, a "totalitarian" who rejects all compromise...
...revisionist assault has taken shape under the guidance of the Committee for a Marseillaise of Fraternity, which is petitioning for a version that cuts - out the nastier bits of gristle and gore. Sponsored by such leading lights as First Lady Danielle Mitterrand and soccer hero Michel Platini, the committee points to the research of Armand Thuair, a former fire fighter who conducted an exhaustive survey of 175 national anthems, purporting to prove that "France is the only country in the world to have adopted and preserved a bellicose national anthem...
Israel was outraged, and so were many leading French politicians. When President Francois Mitterrand, on a visit to Oman, heard what had happened, he demanded and got the resignations of the three senior civil servants who were involved in admitting Habash. The head of the French Red Cross, who acted as liaison in moving Habash, resigned as an adviser to Mitterrand...