Word: mitterrand
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...fact, French pollsters had predicted an electoral victory of the left that would have given President Giscard the unhappy prospect of appointing a Socialist as his Premier and seeing Communists in the Cabinet. But a serious political falling-out between Communist Boss Georges Marchais and Socialist Party Leader Francois Mitterrand seemed to sink that possibility; in an attempt to update their common program, the two could not agree on the extent to which some of the nation's top industries should be nationalized once the left assumed power...
Last week, Marchais declared that the time had come for "a formidable battle" against the Socialists. Among other things that upset him, Marchais was enraged because two weeks ago Jimmy Carter had warned the Socialists' Mitterrand that the U.S. would be displeased to see a renewal of the leftist alliance. (Evidently embarrassed, Mitterrand denied Carter had said any such thing.) Marchais charged that his erstwhile partner had made a treacherous "right turn" in connivance with "forces beyond our frontiers." Accusing the Socialists of duplicity, he said that he was "irresistibly reminded" of the doubletalking bat in a La Fontaine...
...Communist support has remained roughly stable-about 20% of the electorate-but the Socialists have climbed from 5% to nearly 30% since 1969. Marchais obviously felt that it would be better for the left to lose the elections altogether if the Communists could not win on their own terms. Mitterrand was clearly angered. "Is it possible," he asked, "that the Communist Party, under the pretext of not achieving a certain percentage, would sacrifice the immense hopes of the French...
With its aim of freeing the country "rom 75% of its imported energy requirements by 1985, the French government's nuclear power program is mighty ambitious-much too much so, many Frenchmen complain. Socialist Party Chief François Mitterrand, who clearly plans to make the atom an issue in next March's elections, charges that the policy of headlong nuclear expansion was reckless, "launched like a railroad engine at 400 kilometers an hour." In August, some 30,000 protesters tried to slow the train down by staging a noisy demonstration at Super Phenix, the big French plutonium...
...fundamental. "It's a joke," says Centrist Jean-Louis Schneiter. "They have proved that Socialists and Communists cannot work together." The next act will probably be played out when Lamblin and Colin compete for leftist votes in the elections to the National Assembly. Whether or not Marchais and Mitterrand have been able to paper over their differences by then, it is a safe prediction that neither of their Reims lieutenants will base his campaign on local accomplishments during the past year of fraternal leftist rule...