France’s new P.M.

Press, 13 May 1988, Page 16

France’s new P.M.

President Mitterrand’s choice of Mr Michel Rocard as the new Prime Minister of France brings to an end the period of cohabitation during which France had a Socialist President and a Rally for the Republic Prime Minister. Like Mr Mitterrand himself, Mr Rocard is a Socialist. Also like Mr Mitterrand, he is more of a social democrat than someone deeply committed to traditional socialist principles. That might mean that the Socialists will start attracting the Centre.

The cohabitation had come about after .Parliamentary elections in March, 1986, when the Socialists lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly, although they remained the largest party in Parliament. The Rally for the Republic (the Gaullists) and the Union for French Democracy dominated the new National Assembly as a Centre-Right grouping, but they required the support of small, Right-wing parties to have an over-all majority. Mr Chirac was chosen as Prime Minister and has shared power with President Mitterrand since. The Presidential election makes no difference to the number of seats held by the parties in the National Assembly, but the coalition is not as tightly knit and several leading members of the conservative parties have said that they will not necessarily vote to bring down the Government.

Mr Rocard will have to rely on the votes of other parties to command a majority in the National Assembly. That is where his position as a social democrat, closer to the Centre

than to the Left, will stand him in good stead. Between them, Mr Mitterrand and Mr Rocard may bring about a realignment in French politics. If Mr Rocard’s new Government fails to attract sufficient support, the outcome is likely to be a Parliamentary election. The old coalition is almost certain to want to avoid this in the immediate future lest the Socialists get swept in on the wave of Mr Mitterrand’s victory.

New Zealand is bound to get on better with a France which has Mr Rocard as Prime Minister than it would with Mr Chirac. It might have got on better with almost anyone other than Mr Chirac who acted in such a confrontational way over both New Caledonia and the Rainbow Warrior agents. The going will still not be easy. Mr Rocard has been Minister of Agriculture and is thus unlikely to be sympathetic to the issue of New Zealand access for agricultural produce in Europe. It is also very doubtful whether any French Prime Minister would be prepared to see the Rainbow Warrior agents returned to Hao Atoll. Like some other French leaders, he thinks the real offenders were those who. gave and approved the orders given to the' agents. Mr Rocard has visited New Zealand and, during his recent visit to Paris, the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marshall, spent a long time talking to him. At least the Prime Minister of France is aware of New Zealand concerns and views as he takes up his office. That is a reasonable start to an improved relationship.