Several Contenders In France Likely

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31976, 1 May 1969, Page 15

Several Contenders In France Likely

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, April 30. France today appeared likely to have three or four main candidates and various fringe contestants for the succession to General de Gaulle in the first round of Presidential elections expected to be held on June 1.

By early today, there were only two main declared candidates the Gaullist former Prime Minister, Mr Georges Pompidou, and the Socialist, Mr Gaston Defferre.

Mr Pompidou was an early favourite to succeed General de Gaulle at the Elysee Presidential Palace. Besides enjoying the support of orthodox Gaullist deputies, Mr Pompidou is favoured by large sections of the Independent Republicans, the often restivi Right-wing of the Gaullist alliance. Mr Defferre was backed by the main Socialist Party, the 5.F.1.0., last night, but his candidature has still to be approved next Sunday by a congress of the new Socialist Party which the 5.F.1.0. is in the process of forming with other Left-wing groups. The 5.F.1.0.’s rejection of an electoral alliance with the Communists means that there will probably be another Leftwing candidate. This candidate, backed by extreme Left-wing groups and

the Communist Party, might be Mr Francois Mitterrand, the unsuccessful candidate against General de Gaulle in the 1965 Presidential election, or the 72-year-old Communist leader, Senator Jacques Duclos. Mr Duclos appeared as the Communist Party’s main television spokesman in the referendum campaign that led to General de Gaulle’s resignation. The Communists are placing great emphasis on the maintenance of law and order —and even cancelled the traditional May Day march in central Paris after militant student groups said they would join in. Early today, the students, who were noisily jubilant at General de Gaulle’s resignation last Monday night, said they would hold a May Day rally in Paris anyway. The Communists fear the kind of electoral reaction which swept the Gaullists to overwhelming victory in the General Elections after the May-June riots last year. No date has been fixed for the Presidential election, but informed political circles expect the first round on June 1. The second round, at which the contestants will have been narrowed down to two, should take place two weeks later.

The election date will be set by Mr Alain Poher, the interim head of State, and the Gaullist Government of Prime Minister, Mr Maurice Couve de Murville, probably at the next Cabinet meeting on Friday. Mr Poher, the 60-year-old Centrist, who was unknown to the public at large a month ago, entered his third day in the Elysee Palace today.

Close aides say he is unwilling to run in the forthcoming Presidential election,

but he might still change his mind.

The Centrist Party, which is relatively strongei- in personalities than in Parliamentary representation, may still put forward a candidate other than Mr Poher, such aS Mr Jacques Dyhamei, its National Assembly leader, or Senator Jean Lecanuet. Fringe candidates in the Presidential contest might also include the former Prime Minister, Mr Georges Bidault, who was associated with the extreme Right in recent times and was at one point in exile from France. But the main runners in the Presidential race are likely to be Mr Pompidou, Mr Defferre, a Communistbacked candidate and possibly a Centrist. Others are unlikely to play a big part in the race to the Palace.