Mitterrand Maintains Big Lead Over Chirac, Final Polls Show

President Francois Mitterrand, calling for the support of all voters of all parties who want to assist the weak and helpless in French society, entered the last week of the French presidential election campaign Saturday, bolstered by final polls giving him a comfortable lead over Premier Jacques Chirac.

Weekend polls, the last under a French law that prohibits publication of polls during the week before an election, reported that Mitterrand would win 55% to 56% of the vote against Chirac’s 44% to 45% in the May 8 runoff. The results were not significantly different whether the sample was polled before or after a confrontational national television debate between the two candidates Thursday night.

Addressing a large rally Friday night in this northern industrial city, Mitterrand, a 71-year-old Socialist, preached unity and solidarity and appealed to what he called “the hearts and minds” of all voters, no matter what their party, for help in assisting “the suffering, the excluded, the abandoned” in French society.

The mood was more aggressive in the camp of Chirac as the 55-year-old conservative premier started a week of intense campaigning with stops at three French cities scheduled every day. Although he and his assistants were publicly predicting an upset victory, some assistants told French journalists in private that their main goal now is to limit the extent of the probable defeat. If Chirac does as poorly as the polls indicate, he might be finished as a force in national politics.

Much may depend on whether Chirac receives the support of extreme rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen and whether that support alienates moderate conservatives. Le Pen, who took 14.39% in the first round of voting last Sunday, only 5% less than Chirac’s 19.94%, will announce his stand at a rally in Paris today. Analysts believe that perhaps half of Le Pen’s voters will either abstain or vote for Mitterrand no matter what Le Pen announces. But the rest may follow the orders of their leader.

While silently accepting any possible support from Le Pen, Chirac has to be careful not to seem to court or bargain with him. That might drive away many of the supporters of moderate Raymond Barre, who won 16.54% of the vote in the first round and has endorsed Chirac in the runoff. Many Barre voters look on Le Pen as an extremist.

The problem was etched when news broke Friday that Minister of Interior Charles Pasqua, a close associate and campaign strategist of Chirac, would be quoted as saying in a magazine interview today that Le Pen’s party, the National Front, is not much different from Chirac’s conservative coalition, which has a majority in the National Assembly. Newspapers splashed the embarrassing news prominently.