Marriage of Convenience

"It is not normal that there should be more than 5 million French men and women who choose the Communist Party," Francois Mitterrand told his Socialist supporters back in 1971. Those may seem to be hypocritical words for a politician who later joined the Communists in an alliance and who, after his election as President in 1981, became the first head of a major NATO member to offer Cabinet posts to Communists. But they accurately reflect the deep-rooted mistrust that continues to trouble the Socialist-Communist marriage of convenience.

For the Socialists, the present coalition is part of a shrewd gambit to neutralize the power of the French Communist Party by co-opting much of its constituency. Although the Communists drew 28% of the vote in 1946 and 21% as recently as 1978, their support dwindled to 16% in 1981. Mitterrand saw that as the moment to pounce. If the Communists were in the government, he reasoned, they would have to support his economic policies and keep their union members in line; in opposition, the Communists would be more likely to organize strikes and ultimately begin rebuilding their strength. Mitterrand's approach seems to have paid off: in the municipal elections two weeks ago, the Communists trailed far behind the Socialists and lost control of 15 cities. The party has also been hurt by growing disillusionment with its authoritarian structure and by its strong support for Moscow on many foreign policy issues.

Anxious to stay in the government, the Communists have made numerous concessions to Mitterrand. Party Leader Georges Marchais and his comrades on the seven-member secretariat have grudgingly accepted policies of economic austerity that have, among other things, imposed wage restraints on their predominantly working-class constituency. After Mitterrand expressed firm support for NATO's decision to deploy new missiles in Western Europe, Marchais dutifully declared that "the Communist Party has wholly adopted the policy of the French government in which we participate."

Even members of the center-right opposition admit that the four Communist ministers in Mitterrand's government have proved to be competent administrators. At weekly Cabinet meetings, the Communists usually limited their questions to matters concerning their own portfolios in the ministries of transport, health, civil service and vocational training. Says a ranking Elysee official: "They were so accommodating, so nose-to-the-grindstone that we sometimes forgot they were there." Fears that the Communists might get hold of state secrets turned out to be groundless because defense planning is not discussed in the Cabinet.

Still, the opposition charges that the Communists have been successful in achieving their aim of infiltrating all levels of government so that even when they are no longer in the coalition, they will have access to the main levers of power. So far, Communists have been appointed to some 20 senior posts, including director of the Paris metro, head of the national coal board and deputy director of tax revenue. All appointments at the level of assistant secretary and above must be approved by the Elysee Palace. But that has not prevented the Communists from placing their people at lower levels in the shrouded thickets of the bureaucracy. Says prominent Gaullist Alain Peyrefitte, who served as Justice Minister under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing: "The infiltration is very difficult to measure, like trying to read the small print of Pravda. They do it little by little, wherever opportunities present themselves."

French politicians marvel that the Communists have proved so pliant even at the risk of alienating hard-line party members. But though they now seem docile, the Communists retain the power to damage the Socialists' grand design in the future. If, in the 1986 legislative elections, the Socialists fall short of the absolute majority they won in 1981, they will need Communist support for their legislative program. At that point, the Communists will be able to make the kind of demands they have so far withheld. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.