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Two Views of the Mitterrand Presidency (1981–88): I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
Abstract
The French presidential election will be held after the publication of this issue. Our summer issue will contain an analysis in depth of the results and the foreseeable consequences. But our readers will find here two contrasting interpretations of the significance of the Mitterrand presidency of 1981–88, the first in the history of the French Fifth Republic which produced an exercise in ‘cohabitation’.
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- Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1988
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1 Amusing differences of style can be detected in the present government of Jacques Chirac. Some of the ministers, notably the Minister of Finance, keep up the distant tone and emphatic manner of the governments of the Fifth Republic, whereas the ‘younger ministers’ adopt the trendy style of journalists and media stars with gusto. They call it ‘speaking their mind’.
2 Hence the Socialists’ irritation and ill-concealed vexation when Chirac, with unsuspected agility, patronized the huge concert given by Madonna at the beginning of September.
3 These divisions led to the defeat of Giscard d’Estaing in 1981.
4 Jean Lecanuet is the president of the UDF; he is a Christian Democrat politician, an ‘Atlanticist’ who, to the surprise of all, obtained 15 per cent of the votes in the first ballot in 1965, thus forcing de Gaulle into a second ballot.
5 The membership and supporters of the FN are very varied. In addition to simple ‘brawlers’ who choose the FN because it is the most confrontational of the parties, who are also sometimes ex-communist voters, there are, too, veterans of the colonial wars, like Le Pen himself, faithful supporters of Marshal Pétain, Catholic integralists. In my view the ‘brawlers’ are at present in the majority.
6 Law and order in particular, in addition to immigration.
7 Though many Catholics are active in anti-racist organizations, or approve of them, the great majority of practising Catholics feel scant sympathy for the Moslem immigrants. They are much more ‘to the Right’ than their bishops.
8 It is impossible for the majority of the citizens to have clear-cut and well-formulated opinions in such a question, for they are bound to be based on extremely imprecise notions. For example, where does racism begin? Where does the legitimate protection of French culture end? It is this very uncertainty which tends to render this debate a matter of passions.
9 Michel Rocard has announced that he will stand. Jean-Pierre Chevènement has also declared that he will stand, even against Rocard, if Mitterrand does not stand.
10 The Fifth Republic, as de Gaulle conceived it, provided for the primacy of the president, supported by a majority in the legislature, and gave a subordinate role to the parties.