Word: mitterrand
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Next day Giscard took steps to bring some strange bedfellows into the Elysée Palace. He issued invitations to Communist Party Chief Georges Marchais and Socialist Leader François Mitterrand-top leftists who have not been inside the presidential palace since Giscard's election. They both agreed to come for consultations, as did Left Radical President Robert Fabre. Leading the rush to the Elysée were the heads of some of France's biggest trade unions, who had also been invited. They included André Bergeron of the 850,000-member Force Ouvri...
Meanwhile, leftist leaders were conducting a bitter postmortem. Mitterrand blamed the left's defeat on the Communists, who "did not hesitate to add their unceasing and violent attacks [against the Socialists] to those of the right." Later, in a closed session of his party's executive committee, he declared: "We did not obtain as many votes as the public opinion polls had predicted because Georges Marchais frightened the undecided voters who were getting ready to cast their ballots for us. They asked themselves how we could govern with the Communists...
Many analysts, including some Socialists, thought it was Mitterrand himself who had frightened undecided voters by his last-minute surrender to Marchais on the issue of how many ministries the Communists would control in the event of a leftist victory. In exchange for Marchais's backing of Socialist candidates in the runoff elections March 19, Mitterrand had agreed to reward the Communists with as many as half of the Cabinet ministries. At that time, Gaston Defferre, the Socialist mayor of Marseille, issued a grave warning to Mitterrand: "Better to lose than give anything to the Communists." Taking a contrary...
...failure of Mitterrand's attempt to link his personal ambitions to the Communists now renders his political future highly precarious. Moreover, Mitterrand's capitulation to Marchais has made a mockery of his much-touted ability to keep the Communists under control. Last week there was talk that the Socialist leader, now 61, might be headed for retirement. Still, in his 32-year political career, he has frequently exhibited a talent, reminiscent of Richard Nixon's, for bouncing back from defeat. But even if Mitterrand should survive as his party's leader, he remains an improbable candidate...
...other hand, if the left should succeed in squeaking through, Giscard would be confronted by an intractable National Assembly, a clutch of Communists in his Cabinet and a hostile Premier-perhaps Francois Mitterrand himself-committed to reversing his most cherished policies. Measuring all the equations, conservative Economist Jean Fourastié recently provided the best summing up. Said he: "It will not be pleasant to hold power...