13

The French are well known for their lack of interest in foreign affairs. International issues were hardly addressed during the presidential campaigns of 1965, 1969, and 1974, with the notable exception of the 1981 election where foreign policy played a specific part. Why? From 1979 onwards, the reawakening of cold war tensions gave international relations a dramatic turn. Politicians, journalists, political commentators and the public opinion expressed a growing concern through discourses, articles and opinion pools. It also impacted the candidates’ popularity. President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, in line with the gaullist tradition of cooperation with the Communist countries, was loosing the support of the public opinion. Moreover, his détente policy directly contradicted with his parallel efforts to strengthen the Franco-German cooperation and the transatlantic relationship, and to resist the deployment of Soviet ballistic missiles in Eastern Europe. Foreign policy, a prerogative and a major asset of the President, became a political flaw, his competitor François Mitterrand took advantage of. The socialist candidate —whose credibility was not affected by being a long time opponent and an ally of the French Communist Party, benefited from the right-wing anti-Giscard and anti-communist campain as well as from the scathing communist attacks whose main effect was to reassure the average citizen. If opinion polls provide more information about the intentions than about the motivations of the voters, nonetheless discourses and the press comments make it possible to represent the opinion of the French population as the campaign went on. The ussr aggressive policy revived the bad days of the Cold War and led to increasing hostility against communism but also against the African policy of the incumbent President. This appeasement and consensual foreign policy caused Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to lose much of his political support.