Socialist win looks certain

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 10

Socialist win looks certain

NZPA-Reuter Paris With the ruling Socialist Party virtually guaranteed a walkover victory, France’s 38 million

voters, called to the ballot box on Sunday for the third time in six weeks, are showing signs of

electoral fatigue.

Political stars who drew crowds of 40,000 or more in the Presidential campaign of April and early May are facing rows of empty seats in modest rallies ahead of the tworound General Election tomorrow and on June 12. “What can you say? We can’t shrink the halls,” shrugged the Socialist Prime Minister, Michel Rocard, this week after a very modest rally in Marseilles. Mr Rocard, currently ranked as the country’s most popular politician, is widely tipped by pollsters to walk off with an invincible Parliamentary majority. Nearly 85 per cent of the electorate cast ballots

in the two-round Presidential race on April 24 and May 8, giving the socialist incumbent, Francois Mitterrand, a near-, record majority. But on present showing, the turnout for the Parliamentary election could rival record lows set in 1962 and 1981, when ■ about 30 per cent of voters stayed away on the final round. Not even the Stock Exchange seems perturbed by the strong prospect that Mr Mitterrand's Socialist Party will romp home to victory. His win in 1981 set off such a panic that trading in most French shares had to be suspended. A poll by the business

weekly, “La Vie Francaise,” showed 83 per cent of investors saw no reason why a Socialist landslide this time should depress the Paris bourse, which together with the French franc, was unruffled in the final campaign week. Tomorrow’s eliminator will reduce multiple fields in the nation’s constituencies to 577 two-way races, allowing a few days for the contest to sharpen and interest to pick up, but at this point, media treat- . ment is decidedly low key. One French commentator called the campaign “morose.” A foreign radio correspondent spoke of “election torpor.”