Coup de Pompidou

No sooner had Georges Pompidou returned from his European summit discussions in Bonn last week than France's President, with rather less ceremony than is customary, accepted the resignation of Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas. In fact, the suave, sporty Cha-ban, 57, whose "new society" programs have given the Gaullist government a liberal cast, was fired, apparently because he did not fit into presidential strategy for next March's parliamentary elections. The man who does: Pierre Messmer, 56, an orthodox Gaullist who served as Defense Minister under Charles de Gaulle.

Chaban's ouster had been rumored for months, but the actual timing came as a coup de tonnerre (thunderbolt). Not even the Cabinet was forewarned, although over lunch at the Elysee Palace two weeks before Pompidou had told Chaban of his decision. Pompidou even provided Chaban with the proper script. Last week, after a routine Cabinet meeting, the Premier rose to speak: "You have expressed the desire to change the government, Monsieur le President, and I have the honor of presenting my resignation." With a word of thanks in passing, Pompidou noted that his administration faced a new phase, requiring it to sprint toward the coming elections "a little like one does at the end of a race." Four hours later he named Messmer as his new Premier.

In so doing, Pompidou rid himself of an ambitious potential rival. Chaban's programs to redistribute family allowances, increase the minimum wage and reduce military service from 16 to twelve months had won him a dangerously independent following, which conservative Gaullists did not like one bit. As the daily France Soir put it last week, Chaban found himself in the ironic position of "having succeeded in his job and gained favor among a majority of Frenchmen, yet at the same time having become politically fragile." In recent months, the Premier had come under fire for his seemingly casual attitude toward several instances of corruption in the government. Chaban's personal credibility was weakened by published evidence that he had taken advantage of loopholes that allowed him to avoid paying any income tax for three consecutive years (TIME, Feb. 28).

While all of these factors no doubt played a role in Pompidou's move, the impetus for Chaban's dismissal was the formation two weeks ago of a new coalition of Communists and Socialists. The combined platform of the French left, the first real cooperation of the two parties in 35 years, clearly represents a major challenge to Pompidou's coalition in the forthcoming elections. It calls for the dismantling of the force de frappe (France's nuclear force), minimum wage increases, and nationalization of the country's largest industrial groups, including such multinational giants as ITT and Honeywell-Bull.

Pompidou's popularity in France, moreover, has fallen markedly since his masterly handling of the monetary crisis last December. He confidently expected to follow up his Azores triumph with a European summit in Paris that would establish him as primus inter pares within the new Europe of Ten. Yet his April referendum, on whether Britain should be accepted into the enlarged EEC, flopped badly.

Pompidou's choice of the curt, decisive and efficient Messmer to succeed Chaban will mean a shift to the right by his government, which could further polarize the French electorate. But Messmer's appointment also rallies the orthodox faithful of Pompidou's U.D.R. (Union of Democrats for the Republic), since his credentials as a Gaullist are impeccable. An Alsatian, he joined the Free French in 1940 by hijacking a freighter and diverting it to Gibraltar. In 1958 De Gaulle brought Messmer into his Cabinet as Defense Minister; in that sensitive post, he succeeded during the final months of the Algerian war in reorganizing the French officer corps following the abortive "generals' coup." During the last months of De Gaulle's life, Messmer was one of the few politicians to be received at the general's residence at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises.

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