PROBLEMS FOR POMPIDOU

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32020, 21 June 1969, Page 13

PROBLEMS FOR POMPIDOU

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PARIS, June 20.

Amid investiture ceremonies lasting throughout today, Mr Georges Pompidou, who has been installed as France’s nineteenth President, is wrestling with serious difficulties threatening the formation of a Government headed by the Speaker of the National Assembly (Mr Jacques Chaban-Delmas) to replace that of the Prime Minister (Mr Maurice Couve de Murville).

The installation ceremony, the like of which had never been performed under the Fifth Republic, was watched by millions of television viewers throughout Europe. A French Presidential investiture had never been televised before. The Leader of the Senate (Mr Alain Poher) convincingly beaten for the Presidency, had the bitter task of greeting Mr Pompidou on the steps of the Elysee Palace.

But it was Mr Gaston Palewski, president of the country’s highest legal body, the Constitutional Council, who officiated at the investiture itself.

Shortly after the investiture, Mr Pompidou took part in his first traditional ceremony as President—lighting the flame on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Tromphe. Later today, Mr Couve de Murville is expected to hand in his Government’s resignation, clearing the way for an official announcement that Mr Chaban-Delmas, who is 54, will be France’s next Prime Minister. The main hurdle facing the Resistance hero in forming a Government is the apparent reluctance of the former Prime Minister, Mr Antoine Pinay, who is 77, to accept the key post of Minister of Finance that is believed to have been offered to him. Mr Pinay, the master-mind of France’s economic recovery as General de Gaulle’s Minister of Finance from 1958 to 1966, told reporters after separate meetings with Mr Pompidou and Mr ChabanDelmas yesterday: “Mr Pompidou asked me for help, but

I was not able to accept at once. I shall see him today or tomorrow.”

Mr Pinay’s hesitancy is closely linked to a behind-the-scenes tussle over how far Mr Pompidou should open the Government ranks to nonGaullists who helped him to win the election.

Mr Pinay would like to see a pro-European Foreign Minister installed at the Quai d'Orsay to back his own policies, but a powerful Gaullist lobby is pressing for the re-

tention of the arch-Gaullist, Mr Michel Debre, in his post. Mr Pinay, whose experience at the Finance Ministry would automatically inspire renewed confidence in the shaky French currency, said he had no conditions for his entry into the Cabinet. “I listened to Mr Pompidou’s proposals and his views on the programme he intends to carry out," he said. “I shall think about it. If I accepted a portfolio, we must carry out the programme together.” The major difficulty over Mr Pinay’s inclusion in the Cabinet is that he advocates deflationary policies, in contrast to the expansionistminded Mr Pompidou.