FRENCH PARTIES & THEIR PROSPECTS
LEFT
Communist Party (P.C.) Leader: Waldeck Rochet, 63 Seats in old Assembly: 71 Candidates: 470
"A party of order and political wisdom," P.C. Boss Waldeck Rochet called it last week. No paradigm of classic Marxist militancy, the party jumped embarrassingly late onto the student-worker bandwagon and has generally. played a restraining role in the current crisis. De Gaulle made the Communists respectable by wooing Moscow and the East; they like his foreign policy, but dislike his authoritarianism at home and remain the focus of anti-Gaullism among many workers, the poor and some intellectuals. Prospects: some increase in Assembly seats.
Federation of the Democratic Socialist Left (F.G.D.S.) Leader: Francois Mitterrand, 51 Seats: 120 Candidates: about 410
A coalition of the non-Communist left assembled three years ago to oppose De Gaulle in the presidential elections, the F.G.D.S. has hung onto anti-Gaullism as one of its few unifying principles. Its member groups--Guy Mollet's Socialists (74 seats), the Radicals (25) and the Convention (18)--still think more in narrow party terms than of broader federation concepts. Workers make up the main following of the F.G.D.S. With Mitterrand's appeal waning, the Federation may lose some seats.
United Socialist Party (P.S.U.) Leader: Pierre Mendes-France, 61 Seats: 3 Candidates: 316
Doctrinaire intellectual Socialist, the P.S.U. is largely the length and shadow of Mendes-France, the best-known and ablest Premier of the Fourth Republic. Mendes-France was the only important figure from the world of conventional politics to appear at student rallies throughout the crisis. He is the most widely admired anti-Gaullist and is regarded by the students as the nearest thing to an over-30 political guru. He is an opponent of the presidential system and the likeliest candidate to head a provisional government should the Gaullist Republic fall. With few seats in the old Assembly but many candidates entered, the P.S.U. should gain.
CENTER
Progress and Modern Democracy (P.D.M.) Leader: Jacques Duhamel, 43 Seats: 42 Candidates: 255
Another conglomerate, the P.D.M. is a center party that has tried without notable success to be a tertium quid between Gaullism and Communism. The P.D.M. inherited the mantle of the Fourth Republic's Christian Democratic Mouvement Republicain Populaire. Economically progressive, Europe-minded and pro-U.S., the P.D.M. is still far from the balance-of-power position between left and right that the M.R.P. enjoyed, but may pick up more seats.
Movement for Reform Leader: Edgard Pisani, 49 Seats: 1 Candidates: 42
The Movement is a new anti-Gaullist group formed by bearded ex-Gaullist Pisani, who resigned from the Cabinet over last year's successful government bid for special decree powers to deal with France's economic problems. His final break with De Gaulle came when he voted for last month's censure motion. The Movement is the freshest Centrist answer to the Gaullist/Communist dilemma, with a program of dialogue, decentralization and economic planning. Prospects: Pisani expects to win no more than five seats, then build for the future.
RIGHT
Independent Republicans (R.I.) Leader: Valery Giscard d'Estaing, 42 Seats: 43 Candidates: 120
De Gaulle's allies in the government majority, who have often said "but," yet always voted "yes" in the crunches, the Giscardists differ from the all-out Gaullists in degree: more Europe-oriented, more sympathetic to the Common Market and Britain's entry into it, critical of Gaullism's "insufficiency of dialogue." Giscard, once De Gaulle's Finance Minister, is youthful, bright and eloquent, with good long-term political prospects. Right now, the prospects of his party depend on the Gaullists. He is linked with them in an ad hoc Union for the Defense of the Republic that combines most Giscardists and the Gaullists on the same ticket.
Democratic Union for the 5th Republic (U.D.-V') Leader: Georges Pompidou, 56 Seats: 199 Candidates: 408
The U.D.-V' is the most recent incarnation of the Gaullist political party that began life after the war as the Rassemblement du Peuple Francais and later became the Union pour la Nouvelle Republique. Its policy is whatever the general says, its followers a melange of those who want stability above all: the establishment, the petite bourgeoisie, the farmers. In an effort to alter the party's autocratic image, De Gaulle has proposed greater participation by workers in factories and by students in universities. Prospects: possibly a gain in seats if backlash from continued violence grows.
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