FRANCE: Park-a-Pilgrim? Non! Rolling Stones? Non!

When French voters finished balloting last week in nationwide municipal elections, they left a haphazardly divided political pie. The Gaullists marginally increased their overall strength, taking 52% of the municipal seats. The Communists won 45 out of France's 193 largest towns—six more than they previously controlled—the most victories for any single party. The divided centrist groups, which Radical Party Politician-Publisher Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber had hoped to weld into an alternative to the Gaullists and Communists, lost ground to both.

Basically, however, the elections were fought not over national concerns but over what...

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