Word: mitterrand
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...Mitterrand, in the two remaining weeks of the campaign, can attract enough backing from left-wing Gaullists or centrists to give him more than 50% of the total, he will become France's new President. If not, he will face the candidate with the second highest vote in a runoff on May 19. At present, Mitterrand's support probably represents the hard-core vote he will get from the dedicated left: about 20% coming from the Communists, a bit more than that from the Socialists. His problem-which has faced every leftist leader in modern French history...
...Frenchman carries his heart on the left but his wallet on the right." Traditionally, many bourgeois vote left or at least threaten to do so as a protest. However, they quickly return to the center or right if it appears that a leftist has a chance of winning. Thus Mitterrand's best opportunity for a victory will come on the first ballot, while Chaban and Giscard fight among themselves for Gaullist support; in a runoff, he would face a unified Gaullist front...
...Mitterrand's opponents have already played on bourgeois fears by implying that his victory would open the door to the Communists. In a speech last week, Chaban warned: "France is threatened by a Socialist-Communist coalition. We want nothing...
...counter such rhetoric Mitterrand has been emphasizing his career as a responsible statesman. In fact, there is little on the surface that is frightening about him. He has been denounced as an "opportunist" more often than as a "revolutionary." During the Fourth Republic, he served in eleven governments, some of them under rightist Premiers. His portfolios ranged from Minister of Overseas Territories to Minister of the Interior. Although he has been a Socialist for much of his political life, he still says: "I am not a Marxist...
Because of his electoral alliance with the Communists, Mitterrand must continually stress that he is not the party's puppet. It is almost inevitable that he would put some Communists in his Cabinet, but he has denied rumors that he would appoint Communist Party Leader Georges Marchais as Premier. That job, declared Mitterrand, would go to a Socialist. He has hinted that there would even be room in his government for centrists and left-wing Gaullists...