World: POMPIDOU & CIRCUMSTANCE

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MY fate," French Premier Georges Pompidou once said, "is to be President of the Republic —or leader of the opposition." If last week's election results could not quite guarantee Pompidou his first choice, they certainly lessened his chances of ever having to settle for the second. The Gaullist sweep among France's voters—and the turn of events that led to it—have clearly made Pompidou the President's indispensable second-in-command and undisputed heir apparent. "My signature," De Gaulle calls him, and now that seems to carry the imprimatur of succession.

It was Pompidou who, more than anyone else, managed to guide France through the greatest peacetime crisis in more than 100 years. While De Gaulle brooded alone in the Elysee, thinking in characteristically bold strokes about how to end the chaos, Pompidou all but ran the government from an emergency command post set up near his office in the Hotel Matignon. When some Ministers started cracking under the strain (one took to packing a pistol under his coat, another wanted to crush the rebellion in the same way that he had put down Algerian terrorism), Pompidou calmly took over their responsibilities. Sleeping in snatches near his desk and eating little but snacks, he urged concessions for the dissident students when others counseled a show of strength. He hammered out an agreement that eventually ended labor's general strike, and he pleaded with De Gaulle to live above the crisis for as long as possible. When the President did proclaim his intention to stand fast in the dramatic speech that brought a beginning of order, he singled out Pompidou's heroic efforts: "I will not change the Premier, whose worth, whose steadfastness, whose capacities merit the homage of everyone."

It was rare tribute from Charles de Gaulle, but deserved. A professor of literature until World War II, Pompidou has spent 24 years as a Gaullist friend and confidant, an adviser in De Gaulle's political triumphs, the editor of his memoirs. In the same years, and with little preparation for any of them, he pursued three remarkably successful careers. Without ever having studied law, he turned in a first-rate jurist's performance when assigned to an administrative court in De Gaulle's postwar government. Without ever having trained as a banker, he attracted the attention of Guy de Rothschild, rose to become chief administrative officer of France's Rothschild Bank in the 1950s. Without ever having delivered a public speech, joined De Gaulle's own party or stood for election, Pompidou, at 50, was appointed Premier by De Gaulle six years ago. From the start, he performed with grand personal style and only an occasional political misstep.

An avid collector of modern art, Pompidou as Premier yanked down the fusty old portraits of Richelieu, Colbert and other ancient statesmen and filled his office walls with splashy Soulages, Ernsts and Buffets. Later, he replaced the sculptured nymphs in the garden of his offices with a modern sculpture that Culture Minister André Malreaux had recommended as "unknown but remarkable."