Word: mitterrand
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Tough talk from new friends wanted to express an even stronger and closer cooperation and community of views, in order to affirm our presence on the world stage and to enhance the importance of Europe." So declared French President FranÇois Mitterrand at the conclusion of a two-day meeting with his neighbor, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Clad in dark, diplomatic blue as they sat under the crystal chandeliers of the Elysee's Salle des Fetes, the two leaders were explaining the unusual eight-point "Franco-German declaration" that capped their summit in Paris last week...
Dispelling fears that it would plop a band of radical political commissars into the directors' chairs, the Mitterrand team recruited instead an impressive list of experienced economists, bankers and industrialists. The news was so reassuring to the country's jittery business and financial Establishment that stock values on the Paris Bourse rose by a full percentage point following the announcement...
...will retain his job as president of Rhone-Poulenc. An experienced industrialist and champion of free enterprise, Gandois had been singled out by France's powerful labor unions as a prime target for sacking because of his job-threatening efforts to phase out unproductive textile plants. That Mitterrand kept Gandois is a clear sign that the unions will not have a free hand in running what some pundits are starting to call "France...
...government seem eager to impose its own rule over the newly nationalized enterprises. As Mitterrand himself said last week, "These firms and banks should not be appendices of the government. Their autonomy to make decisions and act must be total." The state's role, explained Industry Secretary Pierre Dreyfus, is "to operate as a catalyst for industry, to spur investment and innovation, to oversee the trend of industrial evolution for France...
...Mitterrand's strategy calls for the state-owned firms to act as "locomotives" to pull the French economy out of the worldwide recession. Nationalizing the 28 firms raises the government-owned share of French industry from 18% to 32% and presumably makes key sectors of the economy more easily controllable. But aside from transferring an additional 900,000 workers to the government payroll and costing taxpayers an estimated $8 billion in compensation to private shareholders over the next 15 years, the precise workings of nationalization remain shrouded in locomotive exhaust. A government task force has produced a vague "letter...