The Season of Discontent

By Frederick Painton

Mitterrand's Socialists are divided and dispirited

The exchange well illustrated the divisions that have grown in France's ruling Socialist Party after three years in power. Agriculture Minister Michel Rocard stunned the 700 delegates at the party's annual convention held outside Paris last week by sharply criticizing the administration of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand for having allowed "a serious breach to develop between the government and the country." A centrist and longtime Mitterrand rival, Rocard called on the party to "broaden its appeal to the whole of the country." Party Secretary Lionel Jospin was quick to reply next morning. He was shocked, he said, that "a member of the government would speak to the discredit of his own Cabinet." Said Jospin: "I agree that we must listen to the voice of the French people, but let us not forget the principles of Socialism, the importance of class differences, and the fact that we belong to the left."

With parliamentary elections less than 18 months away, Mitterrand's Socialist Party is clearly in a deep malaise. In 65 local races over the past two years and in the European Parliament elections last June, voters have registered a dramatic loss of confidence in the Socialist government and, consequently, considerable support has swung to the right-wing opposition. Opinion polls show that if legislative elections were held today, the Socialists would lose, with only about 23% of the vote, which is less than the 27% they claim as their traditional electoral base. Ever since the Communists shattered Mitterrand's vaunted "Union of the Left" by leaving the government last summer, the Socialists have had "to face some hard questions about their own identity," in the words of one diplomat in Paris.

Neither the party nor the country has been able to digest easily Mitterrand's switch in June 1982, from a big-spending economic policy to the current tough austerity program that has reduced inflation to 7% while leaving a record 10.1% French workers unemployed. To many left-wing voters, Mitterrand's about-face seemed a betrayal of Socialist promises and ideals, and was all the more bewildering because the government continued to maintain that its fundamental goals remained unchanged. At the party convention, the debate raged over whether the Socialists should, for example, continue to stress traditional themes like improving social welfare and the lot of workers, or stimulate new private investment through deregulation and budget-cutting; whether to champion blue collar workers, or reach out to the growing legions of white collar employees in the expanding service sector.

The argument focused on electoral tactics as much as ideology. "It is in not being faithful to these [Socialist] values that we have suffered," declared Education Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, leader of the party's left-wing faction. Rocard attacked the government and the party for attempting to push through educational reforms that would have extended state authority over private schools. After more than a million people protested in Paris this past fall, the Socialists scrapped the plan and settled for a series of piecemeal measures. "How could we have failed to see that the real challenge before public education was not the existence of private schools but the declining quality of public instruction?" asked Rocard.

Adding to its self-doubt, the party now faces a threat on an unexpected front: Mitterrand's conduct of foreign affairs. A strong supporter of NATO, an advocate of European cooperation and a defender of France's traditional role in Africa and the Third World, Mitterrand had won at least tacit support for his policies even among his detractors. No longer.

The President's attempt to negotiate with Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi for the withdrawal of Libyan troops from Chad led to a fiasco that has hurt Mitterrand's credibility in the one field where his competence had gone virtually unquestioned. After the French withdrew 3,000 paratroopers from Chad between last September and November, Mitterrand discovered that, contrary to the agreement with Gaddafi, a substantial number of Libyan troops remained. A chagrined President was forced to fly to Crete to confront Gaddafi, a move that was denounced by former Premier Maurice Couve de Murville as "the greatest humiliation that France has suffered for a long time." Mitterrand has been hurt as well by public concern over the still simmering separatist revolt in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

Stung by the growing number of his critics, Mitterrand went on national television last week to explain that his foreign policy should be judged by long-range results rather than day-to-day appearances. Though the opposition remained unconvinced, Roland Cayrol, a pollster for Louis Harris voiced his belief that Mitterrand's performance would produce "a positive effect" on public opinion.

The President's TV defense overshadowed Premier Laurent Fabius' ringing final admonition to the Socialist convention, in which he declared: "It is absolutely essential to avoid turning back, to avoid the reaction sought by the right, which would bring this country economic traumas and social shocks." Fabius asked, "Does this country really want the right to come back?" To stir combative Socialist spirits, the Premier challenged two of the opposition leaders, Neo-Gaullist Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac and center-right former Premier Raymond Barre, to television debates. Both declined. With a semblance of party unity restored, delegates could agree on at least one common purpose. As left-wing Socialist Deputy Michel Charzat put it, "The Socialists do not want to lose power."

--By Frederick Painton. Reported by Jordan Bonfante and Thomas A. Sancton/Paris

With reporting by Jordan Bonfante, Thomas A. Sancton