Left or Right, France votes today

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33538, 20 May 1974, Page 13

Left or Right, France votes today

(.V.Z Press Assn—Copyright)

PARIS, May 19.

The French today elect their President for the next seven years and are promised a break with the past, whoever wins.

About 31 million voters, including almost 800,000 in the overseas departments and territories, will choose whether they want a moderate degree of change with the Conservative, Mr Valery Giscard d’Estaing, or a more radical break with the past 16 years of Gaullist rule with the Socialist, Mr Francois Mitterrand.

There will be change, whichever man is elected. If it is the Communistbacked Mr Mitterrand, he is pledged to nationalise a cer-

tain number of large firms and to turn France generally towards a more Socialist-ori-ented society — while prom-

ising the utmost respect for personal liberties. If Mr Giscard d’Estaing wins, he has promised ichange without risk. To show that he wants to break with the Gaullist past, he told those watching his last television appearance on Friday night that they would be surprised by the “extent, the audacity and the rapidity” of the changes under his rule.

Mr Giscard d’Estaing, who is 48, has been the Minister of Finance for nine of the last 12 years. He has often been a difficult ally of the Gaullists. The late President Pompidou once described him publicly as a “prickly cactus.”

Mr Mitterrand, aged 57, who was 11 times Minister during the “revolving-door” Governments of the Fourth Republic, is standing for

President for the second time, and undoubtedly the last if he loses. He forced the late General de Gaulle into a run-off in 1965, the first Presidential election under universal suffrage this century, and won 45 per cent, of the vote. This time, the outcome of the race promises to be so close that the winner may not be known until some

time on Monday when the last overseas votes are tabulated. Most public opinon polls over the last week gave each candidate 50 per cent, with between 10 to 13 per cent of those polled undecided.

The last poll to be published had Mr Giscard d’Estaing ahead, 51 to 49 per cent, but most commentators agree that the final verdict of the electorate could go either way.

A surprise intervention by the acting President, Mr Alain Poher, late on Friday night prevented the publication yesterday by the masscirculation newspaper “France Soir” of the last poll of the campaign. Mr Poher, who returns next week to his normal office as President of the Senate, sent a hand-written letter to the Editor of “France Soir,” Mr Henri Amouroux, asking him not to publish the poll by the 1.F.0.P. Organisation because it would appear after the formal end of the campaign at midnight on Friday. Mr Armour oux reluctantly agreed.