Chaban's Return

And Giscard presents some not-so-new faces

In a masterly television address to the nation after the center-right's stunning electoral victory last month, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing vowed to take into account the desires of the 48.4% who had voted for the left. Specifically, he promised that his Cabinet would contain some new faces who would symbolize the need for social reform in France. But when Giscard unveiled his Cabinet last week, 25 of the 38 senior and junior ministers were old, familiar countenances.

Of the 20 senior ministers named by Giscard, 15 had sat in the previous government. Among those remaining in place: Premier Raymond Barre, who had been appointed the previous week; Justice Minister Alain Peyrefitte, author of the bestselling Le Mai Franc,ais (The French Sickness); Health Minister Simone Veil, whom polls have shown to be the most popular figure in French politics; Interior Minister Christian Bonnet, who has been widely praised for his department's skill in negotiating the release of kidnaped Belgian Baron Edouard-Jean Empain (TIME, April 10).

The five senior ministers who were not in the previous government scarcely qualified as fresh. The new Minister of Industry, for example, is Andre Giraud, 53, who has been chief of France's Atomic Energy Commission since 1970. Transportation Minister Joel Le Theule, 48, held a ministerial post under De Gaulle, while Culture and Communications Minister Jean-Philippe Lecat, 42, was a familiar figure at the Elysee Palace as Giscard's spokesman.

The most noteworthy changes in Giscard's new government involved structure rather than personalities. The powerful Finance Ministry, long criticized as a state within a state, was divided into two parts --budget and economy--just as the Socialists and Communists had advocated. Two moves reinforced Giscard's pledges of social reform. One was the creation of a large Ministry of Environment and Standard of Living. The other was the elevation of Health Minister Veil from 14th- to third-ranking member of the Cabinet, behind Barre and Peyrefitte. In all, Giscard's promised "opening" to the left looked to some critics more like an "opening to the past" (as the Communist daily L'Humanite put it).

Meanwhile discord erupted at the opening of the newly elected National Assembly last week. At issue was the job of President of the Assembly--a post roughly equivalent to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Traditionally, the position should have gone to the chosen candidate of the Assembly's leading political party--in this case, the Gaullists, who won 25 more seats in parliament than Giscard's Union pour la Democratic Franc,aise. Instead, there was a dramatic contest over the presidency involving Gaullist Leader Jacques Chirac and Giscard. Chirac's candidate, incumbent Assembly President Edgar Faure, 69, was pitted against Giscard's unavowed but clear choice, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, 63. Although Chirac instructed his Gaullist Assembly members to vote for Faure, at least twelve of them defected, thus giving Chaban victory. Chirac, who still hopes to become President of the Republic when Giscard's term expires in 1981, suffered a severe setback. The Gaullist leader had been clearly outmaneuvered by the canny Giscard, whose authority appeared to be greatly strengthened.

Few politicians expected Chaban's comeback. He had held the National Assembly presidency for more than a decade before becoming Premier under President Georges Pompidou in 1969. Unceremoniously dumped by Pompidou after newspapers disclosed that he had, legally, paid no income tax for four consecutive years, he retired from national politics as mayor of Bordeaux. A proponent of the social reforms backed by Giscard, he can now offer substantial help by mustering parliamentary support behind the presidential policies. Chaban shares Giscard's vision of a France in which the left-right polarization that has divided the country for so long could be replaced by government by consensus. Sounding much like Giscard himself last week, Chaban told the National Assembly: "I return in the same spirit that makes human relations rest on honesty, mutual respect and tolerance."

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