Word: mitterrand
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...visit was hastily planned and largely unwanted. There were no flashy motorcades, no wreath layings and no banquets. Yet from the moment that Polish Leader Wojciech Jaruzelski shook hands with French President Francois Mitterrand at Paris' Elysee Palace last week, he had achieved what he sought: the stamp of international respectability from a major West European leader. Mitterrand thus became the first Western head of state to receive Jaruzelski since the Polish leader crushed the independent trade union movement, Solidarity, and imposed martial law on the country four years ago this week...
...Mitterrand's own Socialist Party did not conceal its consternation over Jaruzelski's visit. After the President departed for the Caribbean island of Martinique, Premier Laurent Fabius caused an outcry by publicly taking issue with the President over Jaruzelski's visit, admitting that he was "personally troubled" by it. Mitterrand reportedly was irritated by his subordinate's remarks, but after a transatlantic conversation, the President rejected Fabius' offer to resign. Jaruzelski, for his part, termed his 80-minute tete- a-tete with Mitterrand "useful and sincere...
...Paris suburb called Conflans-Ste.-Honorine. Widely admired for his wit and personal charm, he is one of the country's most popular politicians, regularly topping the opinion polls with about a 55% approval rating on general leadership ability. Not only is he far in front of Mitterrand's 38%, but he also leads Premier Fabius, 39, and former Premier Raymond Barre, 61, the most popular conservative opposition figure, both of whom draw some 50%. Rocard, whose standing among the Socialist rank and file had never equaled his public ratings, has emerged in recent months as an influential force within...
Even as they wrangled over motions and amendments last week, the delegates knew that the real struggle for survival will come with next spring's elections. For Mitterrand to pursue his policies with any effectiveness through 1988, his party must win about 30% of the popular vote next March. That would re-establish the Socialists, who currently hold 285 seats in the 491-seat National Assembly, as the country's largest single party and deny a majority to their major opponents, the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the right-of-center Union for French Democracy. But reaching that...
...Toulouse can and must be a starting point for a new impulse. Everything is possible if you give yourselves the means." Those were Mitterrand's encouraging words to the congress, but, perhaps symbolically, they were read to the delegates over booming loudspeakers by a party official. The President chose not to attend the three-day affair. "The party is not my business any longer," he said during a barnstorming tour of Brittany last week. But, added the man who led the Socialists to power, "I would like to see them united...