Message for Mitterrand

By Pico Iyer

In local elections, voters show displeasure with Socialist rule

Nothing seemed to go right for French President Franc,ois Mitterrand last week. His Premier, Pierre Mauroy, was chased out of the annual Paris Agriculture Show by the boos of 1,000 hecklers who tossed beer cans at him and shouted, "Resign! Resign!" Army Chief of Staff General Jean Delaunay quit to protest plans to curb military spending by cutting manpower in the armed forces. But the greatest show of displeasure came from a majority of the country's 28 million voters. In the first of two rounds of balloting for municipal elections, they delivered an unambiguous message: mounting disillusionment with 22 months of Socialist rule.

All in all, French voters cast 51% of their ballots in favor of the center-right opposition, compared with only 46% for the governing Socialist-Communist alliance. It was an almost symmetrical reversal of the results that had brought Mitterrand to office in May 1981. As a result, the left stood to lose power not in 15 cities, as it had once expected, but in about 40. Conceded Jean Poperen, deputy leader of the Socialist Party: "There has been a certain setback. I don't deny it."

Held ostensibly to elect mayors and councilmen in 36,400 municipalities, the election had in fact become a referendum on the Mitterrand government. Indeed, the Socialists suffered their worst losses in large cities, where campaigning had centered not on local issues or personalities but on national policy. As the results came in, Socialist cities fell like dominoes--first the Brittany port of Brest, then the champagne capital of Reims, then the major industrial center of Nantes. The most sobering and startling of all losses was in the southeastern university town of Grenoble. There Conservative Alain Carignon trounced Socialist Hubert Dubedout, who has managed a model city for 18 years; the margin was a jolting 54% to 43%. The Communists, who have four ministers in Mitterrand's government, fared no better, losing eight cities that they had previously governed, including perfume capital Grasse and auto-manufacturing center Poissy, while retaining only three.

In Paris, meanwhile, Mayor Jacques Chirac led his neo-Gaullist party to victory in 18 of the city's 20 districts. With his well-oiled political machine running so smoothly, Chirac, 50, also boosted his chances of becoming the opposition's leading candidate in the 1988 presidential elections. Appearing before his supporters on election night, Chirac triumphantly declared, "The majority of Frenchmen have served an unequivocal warning to the government." Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who campaigned for the center-right, though he was not a candidate himself, said the next day, "France is breathing easier this morning."

It was no coincidence, perhaps, that the most prominent Socialists seemed to be the least popular. Among government ministers, who often by custom hold jobs as mayors or councilmen in their own towns, eight won reelection, but five were defeated outright in the first round. Although the losers do not automatically forfeit their ministerial posts, they may be the first victims in a government reshuffle. Seven more faced embarrassing runoffs (held whenever the first round produces no clear-cut winner). Among them: Interior Minister Gaston Defferre, who has ruled Marseille as a personal fiefdom for 30 years; Finance Minister Jacques Delors, who was running in the Paris suburb of Clichy, a safe Socialist seat for 50 years; and Premier Mauroy, who has controlled the northern industrial city of Lille since 1973. In Paris the Chirac steamroller overpowered both Culture Minister Jack Lang and Socialist Leader Lionel Jospin.

The Socialists' difficulties reflected pervasive French anxiety about the economy. Unemployment is 8.9%, compared with 7.2% when Mitterrand was elected President. Inflation, which runs at 3.7% in West Germany and 4.9% in Britain, remains a stubborn 9.7% in France. And the foreign trade deficit, which reached $1.4 billion in January alone, may surpass last year's record $14 billion. As a result, the franc, which has already been devalued twice under Mitterrand, seems almost certain to be devalued again, even though the Bank of France has been spending some $150 million a week to shore up the currency. Meanwhile, the Mitterrand government's austerity program, which imposed limits on wage increases, hikes in the prices of public services, and curbs on welfare benefits, has done little more than stir resentment.

Law-and-order became another unexpectedly emotional issue during campaigning, as some rightist candidates shamelessly exploited fears that high unemployment and a rising crime rate could be blamed on immigrants, notably from North Africa. Antigovernment voting was most pronounced in Marseille, in the tough urban sprawl around Lyon, and in other such areas with large immigrant concentrations.

Although he studiously remained above the fray, Mitterrand must now address his government's problems and choose between two equally unpalatable options: increased austerity measures and expanded protectionism. Mitterrand may even decide to form an entirely new government, without those ministers who, like Mauroy, performed unimpressively in the elections. But a change in faces may not be enough. After less than two years, Mitterrand's Socialist experiment is in urgent need of direction.

--By Pico Iyer. Reported by Jordan Bon fante/Paris

With reporting by Jordan Bon fante/Paris This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.