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Article: Au revoir Edith, bonjour Bere: France. (Edith Cresson; Pierre Beregovy)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 4, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PIERRE BEREGOVOY, appointed on April 2nd as France's new prime minister, was not President Mitterrand's favourite to succeed Edith Cresson. He was his second or even third choice.
Ideally, Mr Mitterrand would have preferred to keep on Mrs Cresson, his "little soldier", whom he had appointed only 10 1/2 months earlier. She was tough, energetic and loyal, and had not been nearly as bad a prime minister as her multiple critics and her abysmal showing in the opinion polls suggested. With her confrontational style and blunt way of speaking, she had made some stupid gaffes. But they had not been too serious. She had suffered more from circumstances that were not ...