Rooting for Mitterrand : French Socialist President, a Friend of U.S., Is in Trouble

The United States is being run these days by the most rabidly anti-socialist President in modern times, while the president of France is a lifelong socialist who invited Communist ministers into his first Cabinet. Yet Ronald Reagan has every reason to hope for a strong showing by the Socialist Party in the French parliamentary elections next week.

The truth is that President Francois Mitterrand has been a good friend of the United States--not because of any sentimental pro-Americanism on his part but because his notions of French national interest include a closer partnership with Washington than most of his conservative predecessors have thought fitting.

Mitterrand has two years remaining of his seven-year term. But there is a strong prospect that next week’s elections will produce a conservative majority in the National Assembly, creating a split-rule situation that conceivably good paralyze the French government.

Generalizations are always risky. From the American perspective, however, post-World War II French governments have frequently gone to bizarre lengths to demonstrate their independence from Washington. The tendency was especially apparent during Charles de Gaulle’s years in the presidential palace.

One might have expected a Socialist government to be even more difficult, given the long history of anti-Americanism among French intellectuals of the democratic and not-so-democratic left. And Washington was a tad worried when Mitterrand and his Socialists first came to power five years ago.

Mitterrand’s campaign speeches had included attacks on U.S. economic policy and the American role in the Third World. He had promised a restructuring of society in keeping with Socialist doctrines--a break with what he considered the dead hand of the past.

Furthermore, the Socialists would not have won control of the parliament in 1981 without the help of the Communists, with whom they had formed an electoral alliance. Mitterrand’s first Cabinet in fact included four Communists--though none were given posts that involved participation in foreign and defense policy.

Regis DeBray, former comrade-in-arms of Che Guevara and passionate supporter of left-wing movements in the Third World, was named to an advisory post in the presidential palace.

Domestically, the Socialists quickly moved to put their doctrines into practice. They nationalized 11 sectors of the economy, including private banks. They also lowered the retirement age to 60, reduced the work week, made it unlawful for landlords to evict unemployed tenants and pursued an expansionary economic policy.

Mitterrand, however, has proved himself a supreme pragmatist. When his policies produced a bigger trade deficit, a weaker franc and high inflation, he switched signals and embraced austerity--even at the cost of higher unemployment in steel and other outmoded industries.

The French president skillfully used his power-sharing arrangement with the Communists to avoid serious work stoppages. By the time the Communists left the government three years ago in protest against what they saw as Mitterrand’s abandonment of the working class, they had been reduced to a fringe element in French politics.

Mitterrand can be as sensitive as any Frenchman to perceived slights from Washington. According to his own account, he bristled when Reagan used the term subcontractor to discuss a possible European role in “Star Wars.” But he seemingly feels less compulsion than his conservative predecessors to poke a finger into the American eye just to prove French manhood and independence.

The Socialist president has remained critical of some aspects of U.S. policy, especially America’s actions in Central America and Washington’s disinclination until recently to listen to French proposals for reforming the world monetary system. But he has not hesitated to castigate the Soviets for their transgressions in Afghanistan and Poland and their appalling record on human rights.

For purely French reasons, Mitterrand has proved a staunch, consistent supporter of a strong Western defense--going so far, on occasion, as to lecture the out-of-power West German Social Democrats on the unwisdom of their opposition to deployment of U.S.-made nuclear missiles and their lukewarm support for realistic defense measures generally.

Based on the record, Washington has little reason to think that a right-of-center return to power would produce a French government that would be more helpful or less prickly than the one over which Mitterrand now presides. The prospect of divided government in Paris is troubling.

By objective standards, Mitterrand has served France well. The criminal-justice system is more just and the quality of life for ordinary Frenchmen better than when the Socialists came to power. When the Socialists have allowed their doctrine to get in the way of common sense, as in the abortive proposal to assert control over Catholic schools, Mitterrand has been wise enough to heed public outcries.

For whatever reason, though, through most of his five years in office Mitterrand has been an unpopular president. Rightly or wrongly, many French voters seem to feel that the Socialist Party had its chance and muffed it. The expectation is that the right-of-center parties will outstrip the Socialists in the voting next week.

Mitterrand has brushed aside suggestions that if his Socialists lose control of parliament he should resign to make way for a new presidential election. He vows to serve out his full term in “cohabitation” with the parties of the right.

The danger is that the conservatives in that event will deliberately paralyze decision-making in order to create a crisis and force Mitterrand to step down. That sort of disorder, which could spill over into chaos, would be bad news for the Atlantic Alliance as well as for the people of France.

Mitterrand figures that if the Socialists manage to win 30% or more of the votes they will have a strong enough position in parliament to avoid being steamrollered. French elections are the business of Frenchmen. But, under the circumstances, informed Americans have reason to root for the party of Mitterrand.