PARIS, FRANCE: 17 FEBRUARY (RIHOUET)


1.
GV Jacques Chirac, campaigning in Paris street (4 shots)
0.29

2.
GV Campaign posters for various candidates (2 shots)
0.38


16 FEBRUARY (CAUSSIDERY)


3.
GVs & SVs Paul Quiles, Socialist candidate campaigning (3 shots)
0.54


20 FEBRUARY (FABRE)


4.
GVs Planning Minister Michel Rocard, Socialist candidate, mayor of Conflan, Paris suburb (3 shots)
1.16


23 FEBRUARY (RIHOUET)


5.
GV Couve de Mourville, ex Minister of Foreign Affairs under de Gaulle in a butcher's shop, and electrical shop, campaigning (4 shots)
1.44


22 FEBRUARY


6.
GV Madame Simone Veil, ex Minister for Health, campaigning (2 shots)
2.08


21 FEBRUARY (FABRE)


7.
GV & SV Striking Citroen factory workers at Aulnay Sous Bois demonstrating (4 shots)
2.35


18 FEBRUARY (FABRE)


8.
GVs Car factories in Paris region (6 shots)
2.59

9.
GVs Unsold cars (2 shots)
3.10




Initials RdeL/BB





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The French Socialist government has taken the offensive in the campaign for Municipal Elections on March 6, the only major vote before the 1986 general elections. Despite fierce campaigning which concentrates on the economic problems in France, the opposition parties have lost their lead in opinion polls. President Francois Mitterrand's popularity has risen for the first time in five months and local polls show Socialist mayors likely to hold their seats. The neo-Gaullist Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris, and leader of the RPR (Rassemblement Pour la Republique) along with other opposition leaders have urged the electorate to censure the present administration. Countering this, Socialist candidates Paul Quiles, a member of the Socialist Party Executive Committee and popular member of the Mitterrand cabinet, Planning Minister Michel Rocard have been canvassing votes. M. Rocard is the defending mayor of the Paris suburb of Conflan. Ex-ministers Simone Veil, and veteran Gaullist Couve de Mourville, joined the street level search for an opposition victory. The fall in unemployment, a fall in inflation and the government's success in containing Communist trade unions in the motor industry have all helped the left gain public support. The French motor industry suffered serious production losses in strikes at Citroen and Renault earlier this year giving foreign manufacturers a boost in sales.