Word: mitterrand
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...nationwide surveys-published by the middle-of-the-road Paris newspapers Le Figaro (which gives the leftists 46% to the Gaullists' 37%) and L' Aurore (47% to 35%)-have shocked the complacent Gaullists and their supporters into something close to panic. Taking seriously the pledge of Socialist Mitterrand (see box page 27) that a leftist victory in France would culminate in "the suppression of capitalism," businessmen have stepped up their efforts to smuggle funds to havens in Switzerland (TIME, Feb. 19). Meanwhile, Pompidou, who as President is theoretically above party conflicts, has abandoned any pretense of neutrality...
Specter. The Socialists scoff at charges that they would become "hostages" to a Soviet-dominated Communist Party. The Communists, in turn, have displayed a modicum of independence from Moscow in recent years, and many nonleftist voters are no longer scared by the thought of Soviet domination. Mitterrand has not repeated an early pledge that his Socialists were committed to an "indestructible" five-year union with the Communists that would prevent any government from ruling France without Communist participation. Instead he stresses that the Socialists would wield a majority over the Communists in the Assembly...
...reasons for the French voters' apparent disenchantment with Gaullism. Many seem to be weary of Pompidou's arrogant exercise of presidential power. French Political Analyst Raymond Aron, a conservative, refers to Pompidou's style as "haughty, verging on the authoritarian." The low profiles presented by Mitterrand and Marchais may offer a welcome contrast. Moreover, a series of scandals involving Gaullist politicians has diminished the standing of Pompidou's party...
MORE political epitaphs have been written for Socialist Francois Maurice Mitterrand in France than for Richard Nixon in the U.S. His current allies, the Communists, once dismissed him as a fascist. The Gaullists have described him as a covert Bolshevik, a shifty opportunist and a Machiavellian operator...
...Mitterrand, 56, has been in and out of eleven Cabinet posts and has lost one parliamentary election since his entry into the bear pit of French politics in 1946. Yet in the presidential election of 1965 he amassed an extraordinary 45% of the popular vote, against none other than Charles de Gaulle. If last week's newspaper polls prove right, he could well become France's Premier in 1973. This feat, if Mitterrand brings it off, will bear witness to his tenacity, shrewdness and gift for political compromise. Mitterrand has had to painstakingly rebuild the flagging Socialist Party...