The death of French President Pompidou was long expected, But its arrival creates a huge crisis for the French capitalist class.
The whole French political ystems is based on the almost unlimuted power wielded by the President. As the Financial Times delicately put it: The Constitution of the Fifth Republic |in France| & fundamentully lacking in the kind of checks and balances characteristic of most democratic systems.
To have u strong President is vital for capitulist rule in France. With Poppidou's death, the chances of getting this are slim.
GAULLISTS
In the first place, it is not at all dear that the factions in the Gaullist government will be able to agree on a single candidate to be Pompidou's successor, One wing, the liberal' one, wants nurmal Parliamentary democracy. Its candidate will probably be Giscard d'Estaing, the present Finance Minister and leader of the Indepen-, dent Republicans.
Another section of the ruling class, however, wants to move closer to an open dictatorship. This is the Pompidou wing of the Gaullist party which in recent years has taken to banning revolutionary left orginisations-notably the Communist League, turning a blind eye to murders of immigrant workers, and so on.
in opposition to both the so-called liberals and the right-wing Gaullists is the alliance of the Communist Party and the Socialist Party in the Union of the Left. Their candidate will be Francos Mitterand, the Icader of the Socialist Party.
Mitterand stands quite a good chance of winning the election, but of course he remains wedded to reformist policies. And the Communist Party is now beginning to retreat even on the programme of the Union of the Left. Ir of the Left's programme is not a programme for the President.
tions will he lhe revolutionary left ple-in which revolutionaries have played a key role.
these non-electoral struggles, the .. latest also Mitterand.
An earlier demonstration in support of the Brockwell Park Three last Saturday declalation, Party soceetary Marchais put forward the idea that the Union THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT The third vital force in the elecFrance this spring has already seen a their own candidate. whole series of struggles of school students and bank workers. for examBasing themselves on support for French revolutionaries will be able to challenge not simply the Gaullists but The perspectives in France are now clearly for massive class struggles. The French Trotskyists who support the newspaper Rouge will be calling for the revolutionary left to grasp these possibilities hy presenting common candidate in the election. If this cannot be done they will run In any casc, however, it will not be the elections which will decide things but the class struggle before and after the election. If Mitterand should win the election the elements of a situation like Chile might begin to gather in France, The coming months will be vital not just for France but for the whole of Europe.