Exit stage left
Sam White
Paris As President Giscard approached apparently certain defeat in the general election last March he was sustained by two deeply held convictions: that the Communists would do their utmost to ensure the defeat of the left; and that if by some miscalculation, and despite itself as it were, the left did win then the Left-Wing Radicals, who were part of the left alliance with the Socialists and Communists, could be relied to scuttle it within five months of its vict°1-YHe was proved right on the first Point and now, somewhat gratuitously, he has been proved right on the second. This has been demonstrated by the acceptance by M Robert Fabre, the leader of the 4`adicals at the time of the elections, of a Presidential mission which in effect makes hnia a co-opted member of the government. The mission which Giscard asked him to undertake, and which he accepted with alacrity, is to make a study of unemP1°Yinent with the aid of governmentprovided funds and staff and make some recomMendations on how best to cope With it It is safe to predict that even if M Fabre's recommendations are shelved he h.ntiself will not be. He is already being confidently tipped for a ministerial post in the _next cabinet reshuffle but one, and as a ikely future prime minister.
„ All this has taken M Fabre a long way from that time, less than a year ago, when he
was member of a triumvirate — albeit a
minor one — which included Georges Marehais and Francois Mitterrand and he was
,Proclaiming that the government was the 1001 of high finance and big business. At that time he suscribed to the so-called common programme of the united left
although there is no evidence that he read it With any care, and in the elaboration of Which he played no part — which had its own solutions for unemployment. These included large-scale nationalisations,
including the total nationalisation of credit.
Just as there is no doubt that M Fabre is heading for a cabinet post there is equally no doubt that, when he makes his report, his recommendations will fall far short of those he solemnly committed himself to when he signed the common programme. It would be fair at this point to make it clear that M Fabre is no longer the leader of the Left Radicals, having resigned his post on election night when he confessed his disenchantment with the union of the left and especially his former Communist allies. Nor is there any sign at the moment that his example will be followed by his former colleagues, who are indeed falling over themselves in denunciations of his 'betrayal'. However M Fabre's defection is a development which Giscard has devoutly wished for, and actively sought to bring about, and it is likely that his example will be followed by others whether members of the Radical or Socialist parties. It may or may not be true that 'all good bunnies go to France' but it is undoubtedly true that many a left-wing bunny will be tempted as the months and years roll by to nibble in the green pastures opened up by Giscard's patronage. In short, M Fabre's decision to work with Giscard brings the President a step nearer to fulfilling the ambition he has long nurtured of governing with at least a part of the non-Communist French left. Hence the French Communists have reacted with more joy than fury at the news. Here, they claim and not without reason, is the proof that they would have been betrayed by their allies if the left had won last March — and they go on for good measure to claim that where Fabre goes today Mitterrand, Rocard, Defferre and other Socialist leaders will go tomorrow or the day after. Furthermore it was Fabre who took the initiative of breaking off the negotiations for an updated common programme before the Elections, and it is only a step from noting this fact to claiming — quite falsely, as it happens — that it was the Socialists who put him up to it. So for the Communists, as for Giscard, Fabre's defection represents something of a triumph as well as a vindication. What, then, is the importance of the Radical Party on the French political scene? Split in two, partly in opposition and partly supporting the government, it fulfills the ancient traditions of the Radical Party in having a foot in both camps. While it would not be true to say that its elected deputies, both right and left, could ride in a single taxi they could ride comfortably in a mini-bus. And they have roughly the same importance as the Liberal Party in Britain, in the sense that they are often in the position of holding the balance of power. It has in the past been a ready-made shelter for homeless French politicians — Mendes-France, Gaullists in the years of the General's exile, Jean-Jacques ServanSchreiber, former Poujadists, Communist fellow travellers and so on. It ran France off course before the war but such are its recuperative powers that, having emerged thoroughly discredited after the liberation, it was again happily providing prime ministers five years after that event. Fabre, a small-town chemist, sums it up perfectly — it is a club of provincial notables with the kind of middle-class following which is electorally vital.
' Meanwhile, someone who is clearly nettled by M Fabre. 's appointment is the prime minister, M Raymond Barre. And one can well understand it too. Here he is, 'France's best economist' as Giscard once described him, charged with all the country's economic problems and especially unemployment, having to face cross-examination from someone who, only a year ago, was advocating a programme diametrically opposed to the one which Barre is now implementing. There will not only be the tedium of the elementary exposition to come as M Barre explains his policies, but there will also be a prickling sense of unease. For, under the Fifth Republic, there is no more thankless task than that of prime minister. You no sooner begin to make a success of it than you come under suspicion of setting yourself up as a rival to the big boss himself. Already the French press is buzzing with speculation that the skids are under Barre, and the list of his possible successors is growing longer every day.
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