Word: round
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first indications that the practitioners of that inexact science had overestimated the left's strength came only minutes after the first-round polls closed. It was obvious that the left's early lead was fast shrinking to invisibility. Computers tallying the vote on television soon made it clear that the leftist upset was caused by an unexpectedly poor showing by the Socialists. Watching TV in a hotel in Burgundy, Socialist Leader François Mitterrand turned to an aide and asked, "Is that really all?" Shortly thereafter, Mitterrand appeared on television to concede that "we expected...
...other side of the barricades, the center-right parties scarcely experienced a first-round landslide. Of the 46.5% total, Chirac's Gaullists won 22.6%, giving the rightists a tiny edge of 1,320 votes over the Socialists as France's leading party. At the same time, Giscard, Chirac's rival in the center-right coalition, scored a modest success as a result of the surprisingly strong 21.5% showing of the Union pour la Démocratie Française a group of three small non-Gaullist parties that the President stitched together last month. The group pulled...
...message was clear: France's uneasy electorate, fed up with squabbling on the left, uncertain of the dimensions of Communist intentions, played safe. "I expected as much," said Giscard coolly, as he watched first-round returns from the presidential Chateau de Rambouillet, 34 miles from Paris, "I didn't speak Saturday night for nothing." He was referring to a persuasive election-eve address on national television. A victory for the deeply divided leftist parties could not ensure a stable government in France, he warned. Moreover, "though the French economy has improved, it is still very fragile. The shock...
Nonetheless. Mitterrand showed no hesitation in making key concessions to the Communists, in the hope of salvaging a second-round victory. Marchais immediately moved to exploit the Socialists' weakness, exacting from Mitterrand a promise to allocate ministerial posts in proportion to the votes polled by each leftist party. In the event of a leftist victory, this would give the Communists half of the Cabinet seats. Mitterrand even agreed to consider Communists for the ministries of Interior, which controls the police. Defense and Foreign Affairs. These were all concessions that he had previously vowed to deny the Communists...
...exchange for Mitterrand's surrender. Marchais agreed to back better-placed Socialist candidates in the second round. Both men calculated that the combined left parties could still pick up a slim majority in the National Assembly, provided Communist voters could be commanded to back Socialist candidates; at the same time, wavering Socialist voters would be persuaded to vote for Communist candidates in districts where they were stronger than the Socialists...