Word: premieres
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...police investigation in New Zealand and a stream of press revelations in France steadily increased suspicions that Mitterrand and his advisers had indeed played a role in the affair. Early last week, after forcing the resignations of France's Defense Minister and its head of foreign intelligence operations, Premier Laurent Fabius went on national television and admitted that the Rainbow Warrior had been blown up by French agents on the orders of unnamed government officials...
Instead of putting the matter to rest, the Premier's admission further aroused public indignation. Three days later, Fabius again went before TV cameras to answer the explosive question: Who had actually ordered the attack that caused the death of a Greenpeace photographer, provoked a diplomatic crisis with New Zealand and tarnished the moral authority of the Socialist government? The answer, according to Fabius, was former Defense Minister Charles Hernu, who had resigned five days before, and Vice Admiral Pierre Lacoste, the cashiered intelligence chief. "It is at their level that I place the responsibility," Fabius declared...
...Hernu, a close friend and associate of Mitterrand's, Fabius was attempting to distance both himself and the President from what French newspapers were calling the "Underwatergate affair." But after repeated denials of official involvement, Fabius' reversal provoked widespread skepticism. A Sofres-Le Figaro poll taken just before the Premier's midweek TV appearance indicated 52% of the French people believe that Mitterrand and Fabius knew beforehand about the plan to blow up the Rainbow Warrior. Fully 78% condemned the decision to sabotage the ship...
...until 1988, would be so weakened after the elections that he would be unable to govern effectively in "cohabitation" with the conservative parties. There was speculation that he might be forced out of office before the end of his term. Mitterrand, for his part, issued a terse declaration: "The Premier has made all the statements needed to clear up this affair...
...announcement from the Soviet news agency TASS was deferential in tone. Nikolai Tikhonov, it said late last week, had resigned as Premier of the U.S.S.R. In a letter to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, TASS reported, the 80-year-old Politburo member, who has held the premiership since 1980, declared that his health had "considerably deteriorated lately" and his doctors suggested retirement. Named to replace Tikhonov was Nikolai Ryzhkov, 56, a rapidly rising star who was appointed to the ruling Politburo only last April. He is its second-youngest member after Gorbachev...