Word: rightists
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From the moment of its formation 19 months ago, Israel's coalition government seemed ominously fragile. The carefully crafted alliance called for Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the moderate Labor Party to rule for 25 months and then switch places with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, head of the rightist Likud bloc, for another 25 months. Last week an outbreak of name-calling and political pique showed just how delicate that arrangement could be by propelling the government into its latest crisis...
...Cabinets between 1946 and 1958. Now, however, the stability of the Fifth Republic may be ending. Mitterrand, whose term as President runs until 1988, faces the very real prospect of having to deal with a legislature controlled by the opposition. The upshot could be a leftist President, a rightist Premier--and general political turmoil...
...real wild card in the French parliamentary election is Jean-Marie Le Pen, 57, a far-rightist. Le Pen has capitalized on France's xenophobia, waging a crusade that resembles in some of its substance and style the U.S. campaigns of Alabama Governor George Wallace during the 1960s. Le Pen and his National Front charge that France's 4.2 million immigrants are responsible for high unemployment and a high crime rate. Hidden just below the surface is veiled racism against immigrants. Le Pen has been charged with taking part in torture sessions while serving as a paratrooper in Algeria...
...conservative alliance has vowed not to bring Le Pen into any rightist coalition. Aware that he is siphoning away votes from their constituency, opposition leaders have in recent weeks begun urging voters not to throw their ballots away by voting for Le Pen. "The proportional system is deliberately aimed at clouding the balance of forces," warns Jacques Toubon, the R.P.R. secretary-general. "That is why it is so essential that the voters give the R.P.R.-U.D.F. enough support for an absolute, unequivocal majority." The Socialists are also telling leftist voters not to waste their ballots by voting for the failing...
...campaign heads for the homestretch, the only safe prediction is that France is probably headed for a period of political instability. Barring a Socialist upset, the least ambiguous course seems to lie in a solid rightist victory. Chirac might then take over as Premier. But that outcome would lead to a power struggle between Mitterrand and Chirac that might go on for two years, or until the next presidential election. Mitterrand could, for instance, dissolve parliament and plunge the country into further political disarray. He could also resign, a course that he has threatened to pursue if his presidential powers...