Giscard points out that if he was reelected he would not need to dissolve the National Assembly, whereas his opponent would either govern with the Communists or be a president without a majority: “One cannot lead the people blindfolded. This is an important country and its people must know where they are going.” Simon notes that Giscard has problems conjugating the verb dissoudre (dissolve) and says to Bayard that Polytechnique graduates are illiterates. Reflexively, Bayard replies: “Send the Commies to Moscow!” Giscard says to Mitterrand: “You cannot say to the French people: ‘I want to deliver major change, but it could be with anyone … even including the current Assembly.’ In that case, don’t dissolve it.”
As Giscard hammers away at his point about parliamentary instability, because he cannot imagine that the Socialists could possibly win a majority in the Assembly, Mitterrand replies, rather formally: “I wish to win the presidential election, I believe I will win it, and when I have won it, I will do all that must be done within the law to win the legislative elections. And if you imagine that, from next Monday, that will not be France’s state of mind, its formidable desire for change, then it is because you do not understand anything that is happening in this country.” And while Bayard curses the Bolshevik vermin, Simon mechanically notes the coded message: Mitterrand is obviously not speaking to Giscard, but to all those who detest Giscard.
But they have been discussing the parliamentary majority for half an hour now, with Giscard’s game plan being to constantly suggest the bogeyman of Communist ministers, and Simon thinks it is getting rather boring, when suddenly Mitterrand—who’s been on the defensive up to that point—finally decides to launch a counterattack: “As for your anti-Communist outpourings, let me just say that they merit a few corrections. After all, it’s a bit too easy. [Pause.] You realize, there is a large number of Communist workers. [Pause.] Following your line of logic, you have to ask: What purpose do they serve? They serve to produce, to work, to pay taxes, they serve to die in wars, they serve to do everything. But they can never serve to make a majority in France?”
Simon, who was about to stuff another cocktail sausage into his mouth, stops with the sausage in midair. And while the journalists home in on another boring question, he realizes, just like Giscard, that perhaps the debate has shifted. Because Giscard finds himself on the defensive and changes his tone, aware as he is of what’s at stake now, in an era when the equation Worker = Communist is not even questioned: “But … I am not attacking the Communist electorate, not at all. In seven years, Monsieur Mitterrand, I have never said a single disobliging word about the French working class. Never! I respect it in its work, in its activities, even in its political expression.”
Simon laughs mockingly: “Oh yes, of course, every year you wolf down merguez at the Fête de l’Humanité. Between safaris with Bokassa, you like to toast the union metalworkers. Ha ha, yeah, right!”
Bayard glances at his watch and goes back into the kitchen to check the cooking while the journalists question Giscard on his record as president. According to him, it’s very good. Mitterrand puts his large glasses back on to demonstrate that, on the contrary, it is absolutely dreadful. Giscard responds by citing Rivarol: “It is a huge advantage to have done nothing. But one should not abuse it.” And he maintains the pressure where it hurts. “It is true that you have been minister of words since 1965. Since 1974, I have governed France.” Simon gets annoyed: “Yeah, and we’ve all seen how!” But he knows it is a difficult argument to counter. From the kitchen, Bayard replies: “It’s true that compared with ours the Soviet economy is booming!”
Mitterrand decides to twist the knife: “You have a tendency to repeat your old refrain from seven years ago: ‘the man of the past.’ It is rather awkward that, in the meantime, you have become the passive man.”
Bayard laughs: “He still hasn’t got over it, has he, eh? That ‘man of the past’ gibe. Seven years he’s been brooding on that.”
Simon says nothing because he agrees: it’s not a bad comeback, but it does have the feel of something too obviously prepared in advance. At least it has the effect of relaxing Mitterrand, though, like an ice-skater who has just pulled off a triple axel.
There follows a good battle over the French and global economies, and at least the viewers feel that the candidates have earned their keep. Bayard finally serves his main course: a lamb tagine. Simon is wide-eyed: “Whoa, who taught you to cook?” Giscard paints a horrifying picture of a future France under socialism. Bayard says to Simon: “I met my first wife in Algeria. You can play the smart-ass with your semiology, but you don’t know everything about my life.” Mitterrand reminds Giscard that it was de Gaulle who initiated mass nationalizations in 1945. Bayard opens a bottle of red, a 1976 C?te-de-Beaune. Simon tastes the tagine: “But this is really good!” Mitterrand keeps taking off his glasses and putting them back on. Bayard explains: “Seventy-six was a very good year for Burgundies.” Mitterrand declares: “Portugal nationalized its banks, and it is not a socialist country.” Simon and Bayard savor the tagine and the C?te-de-Beaune. Bayard deliberately chose a meal that would not necessitate a knife, the stewed meat being tender enough to be cut with the side of a fork. Simon knows that Bayard knows that he knows this, but the two men ignore it. Neither is keen to mention Murano.
While this is going on, Mitterrand shows his teeth. “The bureaucracy is down to you. You are the one in government. If you make all these speeches complaining now of all the administration’s misdeeds, where do you think the blame lies? You are governing, so you are responsible! You beat your chest three days before an election—of course you do, I understand perfectly why you do it, but why should I believe that in the next seven years you would do anything differently from what you have done during the last seven?”
Simon notes the shrewd use of the conditional but, absorbed by the delicious tagine and by more bitter memories, his concentration wavers.
Surprised by this sudden aggression, Giscard tries to parry it with his customary disdain: “Please, let us maintain an appropriate tone.” But now Mitterrand is ready to let rip: “I intend to express myself exactly as I wish.”
And he hits home: “One and a half million unemployed.”
Giscard tries to correct him: “Job seekers.”
But Mitterrand is no longer in a mood to let anything go: “I am well aware of how you can split hairs.”
He goes on: “You have had both inflation and unemployment, but what’s more—this is the flaw, this is the sickness that risks being fatal for our society: sixty percent of the unemployed are women … most of them are young people … it is a tragic attack on the dignity of man and woman…”
To start with, Simon does not pay attention. Mitterrand speaks faster and faster, he is more and more aggressive, more and more precise, more and more eloquent.
Giscard is on the ropes, but he is not about to give up without a fight. He suppresses his country squire accent and calls out his Socialist opponent: “The rise in the minimum wage—how much?” Small businesses will not survive it. All the more so since the Socialist program is irresponsible enough to plan to lower social thresholds and extend employees’ rights in companies with fewer than ten employees.
The bourgeois from Chamalières has no intention of surrendering.
The two men trade blows.
But Giscard makes a mistake when he asks Mitterrand to tell him the exchange rate of the deutsche mark: “Today’s.”
Mitterrand replies: “Here, I am not your student and you are not president of the Republic.”
Simon drains his glass of wine thoughtfully: there is something self-fulfilling, something of the performative, in that phrase …
Bayard goes off to fetch the cheese.
Giscard says: “I am against the suppression of family tax benefits … I am in favor of a return to a system of flat-rate taxation…” He reels off a whole series of measures with the precision of the good Polytechnique graduate that he is, but it’s too late: he has lost.
The debate goes on though, fierce and technical, over nuclear power, the neutron bomb, the Common Market, East-West relations, the defense budget …
Mitterrand: “Is Monsieur Giscard d’Estaing trying to say that the Socialists would be bad French people, unwilling to defend their country?”