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PARTISAN REVIEW
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It might be asked, however, whether this new , liberal consen–
sus among the intellectuals is reflected in - or perhaps even a prod–
uct of- a more profound "liberalization" of French political life . The
French themselves are posing this question, and on the surface at
least the answer seems to be "yes." For once the headlines tell the
story : in 1981 Mitterrand is elected on a common program with the
Communist Party and embarks on a traditional socialist program of
wealth taxes and nationalization; after many failures and retreats on
this ground, the coalition breaks down in 1984 over massive public
demonstrations against government attempts to control private and
religious education ; parliamentary elections in 1986 give the center–
right parties a working majority, Communist votes are at a record
low, and Mitterrand is forced to "cohabitate" with Prime Minister
Jacques Chirac and his free-market liberal cabinet . Running for re–
election in 1988, Mitterrand no longer presents himself as head of a
leftist coalition but as
Tonton
(Uncle), leader of what he repeatedly
calls
La France unie;
the French voter takes him at his word, reelecting
him as president while refusing to give any coalition a majority in
the parliamentary elections that follow. Mitterrand then names as
prime minister a center-leaning socialist, Michel Rocard, whose task
it now is to deliver the promised
ouverture
by forming parliamentary
majorities day-by-day, issue-by-issue. At the moment the president
must sleep in a centrist bed of his own making.
But can one really consider the recent votes and the subsequent
ouverture
to the parties as reflections of a deeper social consensus? Or
are they rather signs of a vacuum at the center, and of a new in–
stability in French politics? Dominique Schnapper spoke for many
French skeptics in her latest "Letter from Paris" when she reviewed
the recent presidential elections
(PR
3, 1988) . Her main concern ,
and that of many French commentators , was the strong showing of
the far-right xenophobe Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front
(FN), who received nearly fifteen percent of the vote in the first turn ,
attracting an odd mix of Catholic integrists, freelance immigrant–
haters, and ex-Communists . But Le Pen and what he seemed to
represent appear far less threatening than they did a year ago. In the
parliamentary elections held in June the FN managed to retain only
one of its thirty-two seats in the National Assembly, a precipitous
and rather unexpected decline .
The party's slide became willful self-destruction last fall when
Le Pen himself led a purge of his party that drove even his one re-
