Word: pinay
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Dates: during 1952-1952
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...Chamber of Deputies one evening Premier Pinay, a newcomer to the political big time, went straight to the heart of France's economic turmoil. "Currency," he said, "is the image of our country. As soon as the franc recaptures its position, France will return to its former rank." To restore the franc-and France-Pinay demanded ten different votes of confidence. He got them, all in one night-a new record. His plan...
...Hero. His amnesty proposal provoked the most serious opposition. Self-righteous Communists denounced it as "immoral"; Gaullist Deputy André Diethelm called it "a pact with the devil." Pinay fought back. From his notes in a big cardboard folder he drew some startling statistics. Example: French peasants and the petit bourgeois have hoarded more than 15 times as much gold as there is in the Bank of France. The obvious reasons: 1) Frenchmen distrust their own paper currency, which seems to buy less every day; 2) many wealthy Frenchmen have avoided paying taxes for so long that they no longer...
...singularly ordinary Frenchman who runs a tannery in Saint-Chamond, the shoelace capital of France, Antoine Pinay celebrated his victory by staying up until 2 a.m. in a middlebrow beer parlor on the Seine's Left Bank. At week's end he left Paris for the French Riviera, intent on getting back his lost nine pounds...
...become, almost overnight, the most popular politician in France. "Everywhere I go," reported Minister of the Interior Charles Brune, ". . . Pinay is applauded in the newsreels. He is the first politician since De Gaulle who has received spontaneous applause...
Frenchmen like Pinay because he boldly attacked the problem that troubled them most: high retail prices. In his four weeks in office, butter prices had fallen from 880 to 760 francs per kilo; milk and cheese were down 15%. Pinay had worked no miracles (meat prices are still rising). As a right-wing businessman, he had merely consulted the men he knows best: France's business leaders. He persuaded department-store owners to back a price reduction campaign. He called it "Save the Franc." Some cynical shoppers thought the price cuts were more apparent than real; still, they were...