Conservative Parties Cut Socialists’ Edge in France

The conservative parties of France dealt a severe political blow to the governing Socialists of President Francois Mitterrand on Sunday by winning more than half the total vote in local elections that were looked on as the last dress rehearsal before next year’s decisive National Assembly elections.

According to computer projections by the French national television network, the opposition parties of former Premier Jacques Chirac, former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and former Premier Raymond Barre and their allies managed to win 50% of the vote, even without counting the ballots cast for the extreme right-wing National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Le Pen, who has disturbed many in the French political establishment with a campaign exploiting resentment against immigrants, appeared satisfied with his group’s 8% of the vote. Many analysts agreed that this vote, though far from spectacular and smaller than the surprising 11% won by his party in last year’s European Parliament election, was sufficient to confirm the National Front as a significant minority force.

In fact, Le Pen appeared to dominate election night commentary on television, much as he did television talk during the campaign. In one round-table discussion, he and Lionel Jospin, first secretary of the Socialist Party, shouted at each other in a long, angry argument that their hosts tried in vain to quiet.

Jospin, his face tense and his voice rising, accused Le Pen of anti-Semitism and fascism and described him as “dangerous for France.” Le Pen shouted back: “Don’t accuse me of fascism! Fascism was invented by a socialist--Benito Mussolini!”

The true importance of the local voting--known as cantonal elections in France--appeared to lie with the continued failure of the Socialists to recapture their popularity in any decisive way. French television projected the Socialist Party vote at 26%. After winning the presidency and a majority of the National Assembly in 1981, with Communist Party support in both cases,