FRANCE: An Illness in the Elysee Palace

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Chaban-Delmas was forced out of the Premiership in 1972 because of disagreements with Pompidou and a scandal over his excessive use of income tax loopholes. Giscard, on the other hand, who is thought to be Pompidou's choice, is not formally a Gaullist at all but a member of the allied Independent Republican Party. Giscard, moreover, is responsible for the French economy, and, rightly or wrongly, he will be blamed if it falters in the months ahead. Both men have been quietly campaigning for months. Chaban-Delmas, the mayor of Bordeaux, has been looking to his power base in the south, while the sophisticated Giscard has tried to show he is a man of the people, a la Nelson Rockefeller, by playing soccer and even squeezing out a tune in public on the accordion. So far, however, Pompidou has shown no desire to step down until his term expires in 1976. "My succession is not open," he angrily told his Cabinet late last year. "My health is my affair."