Word: mitterrand
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...election of Socialist François Mitterrand as President of France had been predicted by the CIA, but not by Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Thus, when President Reagan returned from Mother's Day at Camp David, he found the State Department's draft of the obligatory telegram of congratulations too stiff. Not delivered until the morning after the election, it did contain a gracious Reagan touch: "Only those who have devoted years-long dedication to winning the presidency can fully appreciate what today's reaffirmation of the democratic process in France represents." But the Administration does...
...Mitterrand must have been the only tranquil man in France last week in the wake of his stunning victory. That event had sent thousands of his jubilant supporters into the streets of Paris, singing, dancing and honking car horns to celebrate what some pundits were calling the second French Revolution. But on the 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...
...during his weekly visits to his parliamentary district for the past 35 years, he had wandered into a small thicket of journalists in the hotel dining room who were waiting for the early projections from sample precincts. In contrast to his usual aloof attitude toward reporters, François Mitterrand seemed to want company during these final hours of his long vigil. Yet he is a failure when it comes to small talk and so he had avidly seized on a remark about how it always rains here in Chateau-Chinon. Forthwith, he proceeded to launch into a lecture...
Only after Mitterrand excused himself and disappeared into a staff workroom did the reporters learn that the 52% was for him, not for President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. When he returned a few moments later, phlegmatic as before, the questions began. "Do you believe those figures? Can they change?" They could change, he said, but not the outcome: the spread between him and Giscard was decisive. Well, then, why was he standing there talking about the weather? What was his reaction to the fact that he was suddenly President-elect of France? Tsk, tsk, he replied...
...tell exactly where the country was headed, but one thing was clear: in turning away from a center-right presidency for the first time in 23 years, the French people had embarked on a bold adventure that would sorely test the political institutions of the Fifth Republic and-if Mitterrand has his way-transform the social and economic landscape...