Word: mitterrand
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...pitched into what promised to be a bruising, strictly two-way brawl to the finish. Center-Right Candidate Valery Giscard d'Estaing was the first to drop his customary Olympian hauteur. In a series of campaign rallies last week, France's incumbent President denounced Socialist Contender Francois Mitterrand as a captive of the Communists. "From now on," Giscard told his supporters in Dole, "whether he wants to or not, whether he knows it yet or not, Monsieur Mitterrand is also speaking on behalf of the Communists." Warming to this theme at a rally in Dijon, Giscard declared that...
...Mitterrand was quick to retaliate. Accusing Giscard of "verbal violence," the Socialist leader turned a campaign appearance in Nevers into a fuming Marxist defense. "Don't insult [leftist voters] who want to live in freedom from the anguish of unemployment!" he challenged, addressing Giscard. Preying on the President's upper-class background and aristocratic style, Mitterrand went on: "I remind Monsieur Giscard d'Estaing that the people conquered freedom almost two centuries ago against the old feudal or der, and against the feudalism of money, and that the people are fighting for free dom today against...
Giscard's scare tactics and Mitterrand's bombast were designed to affect French voters decisively when they go to the polls May 10 for the second round of balloting. But because of the peculiarity of the French electoral system, the final outcome depends not only on the win ners but also on the losers of the first-round vote. Though Giscard and Mitterrand captured the greatest number of ballots in the first vote, thus eliminating the eight other candidates for the presidency, two of the los ers, Neo-Gaullist Leader Jacques Chirac and Communist Party Chief Georges Marchais...
Giscard emerged on top from the first round, but in a particularly vulnerable position. His lead was a dispiriting 28.3% of the vote, compared with his 32.6% first-round score in the 1974 presidential elections. Even then he had, barely managed to beat Mitterrand by 1.6% in the runoff. This time Mitterrand appeared to have made impressive new gains. Indeed, with 25.8% of the first-round ballots, he had captured more French voters than any Socialist since the end of World...
...agitated meeting of his party's Central Committee broke up without any accord on how to instruct its rank and file. Some party leaders, including former Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville, argued vigorously in favor of Giscard, but a surprising number expressed a preference either for Mitterrand or for not voting at all. Resentment ran high about Giscard's attempts to eliminate neo-Gaullists from power during his seven years as President...