has Deen against the president's arbitrary •owess. they incorporato the strong, centralised state which De Gaulle im. posed. In a sharp policy reversal - not his tirsi Mitterrand has followed in De Gaulle's footsteps by raising the office of president above the parliament. He had threatened the right-wing with chaos unless they agree to form coalitionism which has become known as "cohabitation':
right-dominated parliament and a Socialist president.
This has split the right. Chirac of the ex-Gaullist rand offers the right is to accept their economic policies in return for protecting what he calls the 'social gains' of the Socialists. These include cheap abortion, a 39-hour week (the first step 35-hour week!), the aboliton of the death penalty the 'anti-hooligan law directed against the right to demonstrate.
This demands few Solutes the right. Mitterrand has already helped dismantle many of these social gains in prac tice. He has introduced 'flexible hours' which