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France in the Communities: Presidential and Party Attitudes

University of Durham (UK)

The founding of the European Community was followed, shortly afterwards, by the death of the Fourth Republic in France and the establishment of the Fifth Re public under de Gaulle. Since then the attitude of France to the EC has been well known for its idiosyncratic qualities. Formerly one of the main inspirators for unity, France be came, under the Fifth Republic, the enfant terrible of the European family. However, when in 1974 the first non- Gaullist President of the Republic, Valery Giscard d'Estaing was elected—reputedly more "European-minded" than his predecessors—a different approach was expected. This article describes the way French presidential and party attitudes have evolved in recent years. While French political differences over European integration have been deep, it will be shown that, due partly to experience gained through the workings of the EC, divisions have become less marked, and occasionally pronouncements by major political spokesmen on European matters have an uncanny similarity. Where differences still exist—as they undoubtedly do—they cause as much disunion within each of the major political groupings of Right and Left as between them.

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