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The falling-out between Giscard and Chirac was inevitable. The fundamental conflict focused on the problem of the rising strength of the Socialist-Communist alliance. Chirac had lost patience with Giscard's ineffectual attempt to woo the moderate Socialists with a program of reforms aimed at reshaping France into an "advanced liberal democracy." The trouble was that the reforms were too mild to win support from the left and too strong to please Giscard's conservative support.
For example, Chirac found himself defending a capital gains tax that his own party vehemently opposed. Giscard's failure to halt inflation or cut record unemployment only exacerbated France's growing mood of anxiety and drift. The result: a steady drain of confidence in Giscard's ability to govern, which strengthened the left. Chirac wanted to force a new election by dissolving the National Assembly and waging a tough anti-Communist campaign for a new Parliament; Giscard refused to risk a confrontation that would split France along ideological lines; rebuffed, Chirac quit (TIME, Sept. 6).
As Chirac told Paris Bureau Chief Gregory Wierzynski, "General de Gaulle taught us that a politician can act only if he has the consensus of the electorate. As Premier I did not wish to govern France if the belief that we represented a majority was contested. There was only one way to prove our legitimacy."
Within a week of resigning from the government, Chirac charted a comeback. The old Gaullist party, without a President or a Premier for the first time in 18 years, was in disarray. The Gaullists .needed Chirac as much as he needed them. "We would have faced a party crisis within six months," says Yves Guena, now head of the new R.P.R.'s political section. "Chirac offered an adventure, and between slow death and adventure, I chose adventure."
Chirac's first task will be to build a nationwide political organization staffed by his own men, equipped with computers and other modern electioneering techniques. But the basic thrust of the new party is to appeal to the disillusioned shopkeepers, small businessmen, clerks, office employees and workers who have been turning to the Socialists. For months, polls have shown the Socialist-Communist strength at 52%, enough for a parliamentary majority if the election were held today. "We will succeed," says Guena, "only if we can recuperate the lower-middle-class vote that used to go to General de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou." Patriotism, the Gaullists hope, will once again cut across all classes. "Chirac is building his Assembly on the nation," says Jean Charlot, an eminent historian of Gaullism. "Giscard could not build an Assembly on the idea of Europe."