Led on the 'centre' parties to break up their coannon with the right and join the government in some form. perienced bourgeois politi- Mitterrand cian, having personally participated in nearly all the coalition Che Four french episodic Second War. Coalition governestablished as the 'natural French bourgeois party of government - unlike the Conservative party in Bri tain — had been a constant leature of French politics since 1947. It was this situation which created the conditions the Bonapartist role of the French president under De Gaulle which was built into the constitutional trame work of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
Giscard d'Estaing, a stable 70s, under right-wing bloc of parties in the UDF appeared to be emerging which could command a stable majority within me renen stare Secondly the SP alone was not considered, and would not be considered a totally perfect instrument TOr government by bourgeoisie. The ruling class preiers to exercise us Own ctly the simple, its ties to the strument the an en by some OIS force has successtully This гаing forces - seen again in his project creating a SP/'centre' pact as the stable governmenta instrument of big European capital in France.
On the surface there is no reason why an SP with a crushing majority should have been bothered about a united "centre/right opposi tion. However the pol deepen the Eurosocialist" features of the French SP, particularly by entering electoral agreements with 'centre bourgeois parties, to coom the line of an SP/CY conclusively break his This means breaking with the policies which the first Mitterrand ment was elected on in 1981, and deepening a course towards strengthening the building up the in dependent nuclear force, and support for the Single European Al Making the SP the 'natural' • party of govern Frenc bourgeoisie means building a new SP/centre bloc which
Socialist Action July 1988