FRANCE: Steel, Surgery and Survival

The Premier's "new revolution "provokes an outcry

Raymond Barre made the rashest of vows when President Valery Giscard d'Estaing appointed him Premier of France in August 1976. He promised to cure the country's inflation-racked economy in three years. As that deadline approaches, the roly-poly former economics professor has become the target of increasingly heavy fire from trade unions, the leftist opposition and even the largest party in his own coalition, the Gaullists. Last week, at the insistence of Gaullist Leader Jacques Chirac, the French parliament was called into emergency session for the...

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