The Task Facing Mitterrand

...The long list of troubles begins with the economy...

...His object was to redirect small savers' funds to more productive investments, but most of his colleagues opposed such an unpopular move during the home stretch of an election drive...

...Knowledgeable parties, though, have indicated that his departure had less to do with policy than politics...

...The President is all the more vulerable because, in the name of protecting civil liberties, he has introduced police and judicial reforms that detractors claim hinder law enforcement...

...Elsewhere, an aggressive young Gaul-list named Alain Carignon upset PS stalwart and 18-year incumbent Hubert Dubedout for the mayoralty of Grenoble, an extraordinarily well-run city that has long been one of the Left's showpieces...

...As President, Mitterrand has often disappointed the traditional Leftist constituency-FO and the other "moderate" union organization, Confideration Francaise Democratique du Travail (CFDT), representing upper-tier blue-collar workers and progressive white-collar professionals, respectively...

...The government was braced for bad news-its popularity in the polls had been slipping for a while, and Mitterrand's personal approval rating had fallen below 50 per cent for the first time early this year...

...Incumbent Communist mayors were defeated in the first round in Aries and Reims, and Joseph Sanguedolce lost a run-off in St...

...In addition to dropping double the 10-15 municipalities Socialist Party (PS) Chairman Lionel Jospin had said would be "normal, " the ruling parties saw six Cabinet members, including Employment Minister Jean Le Garrec, lose their local posts...

...unemployment is over 9 per cent...

...It would be a mistake to begin composing an epitaph for the PS, as some gleeful Rightists have, on the basis of this month's local contests...

...The balancing act, however, is not working...

...last year's budget deficit was a record $ 15 billion, and the foreign trade deficit $18 billion...

...Few Frenchmen doubt, though, that Mitterrand and his associates have been badly bruised...

...The government's dilemma is that belt-tightening measures risk severely alienating the unions, the far Left of the PS, and possibly the Communists...

...The Center-Right opposition parties rebounded from disgrace to capture 30 cities, a result that will surely aggravate already simmering conflicts within the Socialist-Communist coalition as well as damage the Left's credibility in future policy debates...

...Jospin himself was defeated in his race for the Paris City Council, while four of the most prominent government figures prevailed only after runoffs: Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy in Lilies, Finance Minister Jacques Delors in Clichy, Interior Minister Gaston Deferre in Marseilles, and Industry Minister Jean-Pierre Chevene-ment in Belfort...

...Besides the lag in enforcing the Auroux law, many of the nationalization and decentralization bills have been passed well behind schedule, partly owing to unexpectedly strong resistance from the opposition...

...Although the Communists, perhaps taking into account the extreme limits of their independent leverage, made a point of professing "Leftist unity" during the municipal campaign, they may very well continue to challenge the Socialists indirectly through the pugnacious CGT...

...Similarly, Social Affairs Minister Pierre Beregovoy, a Mitterrand intimate, sparred last June with Communist Health Minister Jack Ralite over the intricacies of hospital reorganization...

...Mitterrand, borrowing Gaullist phaseology to outline his policy of nationalism and moderate anu-Sovietism, has won approval from most of the electorate and respectful silence from the Center-Right...

...The losses were evenly distributed between Socialists and Communists...

...The minister most frequently at the center of controversy is Delors, whose conservative economic brainstorms tend to be quickly disavowed by Prime Minister Mauroy...

...More remarkably, Communist Party chief Georges Marchais claimed to differ with the President over "only a few nuances" after his late January address to the West German Bundestag urging the acceptance of American Euromissiles...

...Many contests, to be sure, turned on local rather than national concerns...

...The opposition held firm in all its bastions, except Chatellerault...

...Yet most of all the government's thrashing attests to its spotty record in office...

...Its partisans did not hesitate to score points against the party mainstream on election eve when officials issued an untimely projection of 10 per cent inflation and a larger trade deficit for the coming year, based on January's economic indicators...

...Whatever proves to be the case, it should be remembered that Mitterrand is a master politician and has at least two more years to revive his fortunes before the stumping starts for the 1986 parliamentary balloting...

...The first will complete the implementation of the Auroux law, which increases worker participation in management...

...Much as his opponents had warned, Mitterrand's heavy social spending has apparently fueled consumption without reviving the economic engine growth for '82 was almost zero...

...Accordingly, the Socialists have been revising their strategy under the guidance of Delors and controversial whiz kid Jacques Attali...

...Brian L. Zimbler, a past contributor to these pages, has studied the French Left at the fecole Normale Superieure...

...the second will lower the retirement age to 60...

...Etienne...

...Delors' notion of limiting wage increases to 4 per cent was squelched in this manner last year, as was his more recent declaration that the interest rates on a popular passbook savings account would be lowered...

...The public has been quick to blame Mitterrand for what many feel is an inadequate response to anti-Semitic and foreign-inspired attacks...

...Interestingly, Berfegovoy owes his presence in the Cabinet to internal bickering...

...Mitterrand himself has embarked on a campaign to placate French industrialists...

...Foreign policy seems to be the one area where harmony has on the whole prevailed, notwithstanding a flap earlier this month over the dismissal of General Jean Delauney, head of the Army, who opposed the government's plans to cut conventional forces in favor of increased spending on nuclear weapons...

...Meanwhile, in an open sop to Chevenement, an additional $4 billion has been allocated for investment in the ailing steel industry and other nationalized enterprises...

...he replaced far left Socialist Nicole Questiaux, whose passion for radical reforms of the Social Security system allegedly irked Mitterrand loyalists...

...The Government's expressions of confidence that a final compromise will be achieved by this spring are being taken less than seriously...

...and the third will reduce the work week to 35 hours from the present 39...

...A controversy surrounding the dismissal of the local soccer club trainer was a boon to Sanguedolce's opponents in St...

...He has gone so far as to promise lighter corporate taxes and more investment incentives, especially for high-technology development...

...Etienne, the largest Communist-controlled French city...

...Then there is the critical problem of the various warring Socialist wings...

...All told, the Left gave back half of the major municipalities it took from the Center-Right in '77, when it won 155 of 221 races...

...To placate his critics on the Left, Mitterrand is pushing ahead with three reforms important to labor and anathema to the Patronat, France's vocal employers' association...

...The Communists have been surprisingly docile, perhaps hoping that their four Cabinet posts will enable them to rebuild their ailing organization from within the ruling establishment...

...Within the PS, the radical faction led by Industry Minister Chevenementa man with presidential ambitions of his ownhas grown increasingly restive...

...Giscard and his Prime Minister, Raymond Barre, men who had been thought of as discredited, lambasted Mitterrand impressively in speeches, television spots, and interviews...

...Paris Mayor and Gaullist Party leader Jacques Chirac, for example, would almost certainly have been re-elected under any circumstances, for his loyal constituency of conservative-minded petits and hauls bourgeois continues to outnumber adherents of the Left in the capital...

...The two finally hammered out a compromise to be made operative in 1984, only to have that target date scorned as "totally unrealistic" by the government Economic Council...

...On the contrary, the government has earned a reputation for clumsiness and self-contradiction that is infuriating all sides...

...The latest firestorm has been caused by the long-time Socialist desire to bring publicly financed "private" schools-95 per cent of them Catholic-under more direct government control...

...It is generally agreed that Mauroy is on his way out as Prime Minister-a convenient scapegoat for the electoral setback-but not whether his replacement will be another centrist or a more Left-leaning politician...

...But the final tally was worse than anticipated...

...The balloting unmistakably demonstrated the resurgence of an opposition that quit office in June 1981 in severe disarray and disfavor...

...In addition, Socialist insiders say, the Finance Minister hopes to cut the budget deficit in half this year, encourage consumer saving, and "realign" the franc within the European monetary system...

...It wants more state intervention to pump up, not constrain the economy...

...Persistent separatist violence in Corsica has not enhanced Mitterrand's stature either, though he may have gotten out in front of that problem in January by appointing the fearsome Commissioner Robert Broussard to head the island's police...

...But the Left' s essential domination of French politics is assured for some years to come: Mitterrand's Presidency runs through 1988, and despite the calls from some overexcited triumphant Rightists for the National Assembly's "dissolution," the Left is likely to maintain its commanding plurality there until the next scheduled vote in 1986...

...In Nantes, SocialistMayor Alain Chenard was ousted from the office he had won by 649 votes in the last municipal election in 1977...

...The last would necessitate another devaluation that seems virtually certain now that the value of the Deutsche mark is climbing in the wake of the West German election...

...Although Finance Minister Delors reportedly takes pride in having lowered inflation to just below 10 per cent in 1982, the rest of the fiscal picture is fairly dismal...

...Observers are divided on how, let alone when, Mitterrand will attempt to bring a degree of unity to the PS...

...But first he has to put his own coalition in order-not an inviting endeavor...

...Other issues have produced clashes among Cabinet members, too, contributing to the public confusion about the government's course...

...Defections by various chapters of the once dependably Socialist labor confederation, Force Ouvriere (FO), did not help matters, nor did the energetic campaigning done in Deferre's behalf by the Communists, whom Marseilles Socialists traditionally despise...

...Cooperation Minister Jean-Pierre Cot resigned last autumn, ostensibly because of disagreement over African policy...

...An "austerity program" was imposed to pare outlays last fall...

...He also has failed to mitigate the hostility of conservatives, particularly the business community...

...Deferre's troubles in Marseilles, after 30 years of running a tight ship at city hall, reflected dissatisfaction among residents of that port city, heavily populated by North Africans, with the liberal immigration policies he has pushed as Interior Minister...

...It is true that thanks to the decentralization law recently enacted by the Socialists, the Center-Right will gain unprecedented administrative and patronage powers in the localities that have fallen into its hands...

...Further, it has been announced that wages and prices, strictly controlled from June-October 1982, will continue to be "monitored" in an effort to reach Delors' goal of 8 per cent inflation for 1983...

...And Chirac, whose ability to attract big crowds and passionate loyalty has never deserted him, seems to be gathering momentum for a presidential run in '88...

...It is hardly shocking that the clergy and the Right are up in arms about this, despite the relatively conciliatory tone of the proposals delivered by Education Minister Alain Savary after months of delay...

...As for the timing of the expected shuffle, some Socialist sources predict it will take place in the very near future and others insist the status quo will be maintained until the party congress in the fall...

...The Communist-controlled Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) has already spurred a series of strikes in the automobile sector, hobbling production at Citroen and Fiat and practically shutting down a Renault factory...

...The franc has been devalued twice under the Socialists...

...Cot belongs to yet another dissident wing of the PS, that of Planning Minister Michel Rocard...

...Renault's government-affiliated managers have been unyielding in the dispute, and CGT leader Henri Krasucki, accusing them of "lock-out tactics," has convinced the CFDT to mount a number of sympathy actions...

...The Center-Right, basically split between supporters of former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Chirac's Gaul-lists, has found new unity while out of power, developing a coherent line of attack on government economic and social policies...

...Even where the government's intentions are clear it has moved slowly, blunting the enthusiasm of its backers...

...Mitterrand's task is now to gain the same kind of support for his domestic policies...

...Speculation has ranged from leftist Assembly President Louis Mermaz, to Beregovoy or possibly Delors...

...What is surprising is that opponents of the move seem to have mustered enough support to tie up any legislation...

...The Gaullists' sweep of the Paris City Council, on the other hand, was unusually impressive...

...The country's reserves have fallen to $1.5 billion...

...WHY THE LEFT LOST The Task Facing Mitterrand By Brian L. Zimbler Paris After 20 months in office, President Francois Mitterrand's Socialist-dominated government clearly flunked its first major political test in this month's two-stage nationwide municipal elections...

...The Socialists' image also has suffered from the frightening upsurge of terrorism since they came into office...

...At the same time, the cost of doling out new benefits and making compensation payments to the shareholders of lately-nationalized industries and banks has required a skyrocketing public debt, elevating interest rates in a period when financially strapped private companies badly need credit...

...Under French law this does not require them to quit the national administration...

...Mitterrand's major campaign promise to repeal the harsh "liberty and security" law enacted under Giscard, for instance, has so far gone unfulfilled because of differences between Deferre and Justice Minister Robert Badinter over procedural details...

...Rumors that a second one is in the works were lent credence last month by CFDT head Edmond Maire, speaking to reporters following a meeting with Mitterrand...