U.S. Funds French Rightists Opposed to Socialist Rule
Operators of a U.S. government-financed fund designed to resist totalitarianism have distributed $1.5 million to a right-wing trade union and a student group opposing France’s Socialist government, it was reported today.
The Socialist newspaper Liberation said the National Endowment for Democracy, created last year by the Reagan Administration to foster democracy in “totalitarian” states or nations where “democracy is still fragile,” directed more than $1.5 million of its $3.3-million European budget into France.
The newspaper said $830,000 was given to a Force Ouvrier, or Workers Force, a right-wing trade union federation.
The National Inter-University Union, a right-wing student group, was given another $575,000 and four smaller anti-communist groups received a total of $157,000, the newspaper said.
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