Word: mitterrand
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...James Kelly. Reported by Jordan Bonfante with Mitterrand and Johanna McGeary /Washington
...Mitterrand's troubles can be traced to the economic austerity program he launched in 1982. During his first year in office, the Socialist President nationalized a flock of industries and tried to spend the country out of recession, but a sagging franc and surging inflation persuaded Mitterrand to return to the more cautious policies of his conservative predecessor, Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Under the direction of Finance Minister Jacques Delors, the Socialist government experimented with wage and price controls, cut spending and instituted an ambitious "industrial restructuring" that could over the next four years lead to the layoff...
...harsh economic measures overshadow Mitterrand's other accomplishments. The French ad mire his muscular foreign policy as much as Washington does. In the deluge of reform legislation passed during his first year, Mitterrand abolished the death penalty and raised the minimum wage. In his assault on France's centralized rule, his government has chipped away Paris' stranglehold on the rest of the country...
Before leaving for Washington last week, Mitterrand tried valiantly to resolve differences among his fellow leaders of the ten-member European Community. He put to gether a carefully crafted compromise for a two-day E.C. summit meeting in Brussels, only to see his plan fall apart at the last minute. The impasse came over British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's demand for a refund on her country's outsize contribution to the Community's budget. Though Thatcher cut her demand to $1.12 billion and Mitterrand sweetened his offer to $935 million, the gap could not be bridged...
Throughout the squabbling, however, Mitterrand received high marks from the others, including Thatcher. During the two months before the Brussels meeting, he had flown to each of the nine capitals and met with Thatcher twice. He pledged last week to renew his shuttle diplomacy, since he hopes to strike a compromise be fore the next summit in June, when his term as chairman expires. "Europe of the Ten is not dead," he declared at the end of the Brussels meeting. "It has suffered a further blow, but the situation is not desperate. We'll be pressing...