Word: mitterrand
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...against him, Giscard's most important rival in the May 5 balloting is former Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas, 59. Yet neither Giscard nor Chaban will come in first in that voting. The latest public opinion polls show that the unity candidate of the Socialist and Communist parties, Francois Mitterrand, 57 (TIME, April 29), still holds a commanding lead. Polls late last week gave him 42% of the vote, Giscard 28% and Chaban 24%. But unless Mitterrand wins an absolute majority, which is not likely, he will be forced into a runoff on May 19 against the candidate with...
Although Chaban and Giscard at first agreed not to attack each other, Chaban last week warned his fellow Gaullists that Giscard will not be able to beat Mitterrand in the runoff. Chaban exhorted: "I say that I can defeat Mitterrand. You cannot joke on the May 5 ballot. Vote wisely! Vote Chaban-Delmas, who can keep us from the peril of Mitterrand...
While busy wooing middle-of-the-road voters, Mitterrand has managed to becloud the crucial issue of what radical changes his presidency might bring. In foreign policy, he has distanced himself from his Communist partners by declaring: "France belongs to the Western world, the Atlantic world." He has said that his dealings with the U.S. would not be "so very different" from those of the current regime "but would be less abrasive." On domestic issues, he has downplayed parts of the Socialist-Communist platform that call for greater nationalization of industry and for a crash housing program by asserting that...
Serious Challenge. The specter of a leftist government has already spurred some wealthy Frenchmen to move their money abroad. For example, one top attorney admits that he drives regularly into Switzerland to deposit his own and his clients' funds in secret bank accounts there. Mitterrand nonetheless may be succeeding in his tranquilizing campaign. The right-wing Paris journal Minute warned last week: "Mitterrand has already won a great battle: he no longer frightens...
...Still, a Mitterrand presidency would not be without its frightening aspects. "A Mitterrand victory," observes TIME Chief European Correspondent William Rademaekers, "could bring back all the uncertainties of the Popular Front government of the mid-'30s. One could expect a decline in business confidence and a rush to get assets out of the country, including the billions of francs stashed away in mattresses. Despite Mitterrand's comforting promises, the residual fears of the left will not quickly disappear. Outside France, Communists in the Cabinet of a major West European power would give Communist parties in other nations legitimacy...