France: A Campaign Catches Fire

Giscard takes on his challengers—and those notorious diamonds

The French presidential campaign had begun to resemble a tedious exercise in shadowboxing and issue ducking. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing remained in lofty seclusion behind the ornate iron gates of the Elysée Palace. Socialist Candidate Francois Mitterrand slipped away for tours to the U.S. and China. Neo-Gaullist Jacques Chirac drifted off for a week in the Caribbean. Even Communist Candidate Georges Marchais confined himself largely to preaching to the converted in party districts like Paris' working-class suburbs. Then suddenly last week, the gloves came off and...