Wounded Premier

Across French TV screens flashed the handsome face of Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas. For once Chaban didn't look like the golden boy of French politics. Somber and severe, he appeared, reported Le Monde, like "a wounded man."

In a Checkers-style speech to his countrymen, the Premier was answering charges that, by taking skillful advantage of French tax laws, he had paid no income taxes whatever between 1966 and 1969 (TIME, Feb. 14). "I obeyed the law applying to everyone," Chaban declared. He supplied no figures, but briefly listed his property, including two houses and two apartments. "Now," said the Premier, "you know as much about it as I do." At times his tone was cutting, occasionally he bordered on rage.

Alas, the Premier chose to make his speech on the very day that the taxes of his fellow Frenchmen fell due. Critics on the left and right pronounced themselves unconvinced, and anti-Chaban demonstrators staged a march from the Place de la Bastille to the Hotel de Ville. Had the Premier, who has been a deputy, mayor of Bordeaux, minister of the Fourth and Fifth Republics and speaker of the National Assembly, now become a liability to his party? Gaullist Deputy Jacques Richard overheard a shopgirl remark, as she paid her taxes, "Ah, if only I could manage things like Chaban." "That," said Richard, "is when I realized how serious the situation was."

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