Letter From Parisnby Curtis Caten. Just How Monarchical isnMonsieur Mitterrand?nEver since Machiavelli, and probablynlong before that, successful statesmennhave known that a plentiful stock ofnmendacity, as well as guile, are essentialnfor anyone wishing to get ahead innpolitics. But what many of them maynhave forgotten during their arduousnclimb to the summit is that the oftennbitter accusations they level against theirnadversaries during the years of ascentncan later be turned around and usednagainst themselves when at last theynhave reached the top.nFrancois Mitterrand’s spectacular careernoffers a classic illustration of thisnphenomenon. A quarter of a centurynago, in 1964, when he was alreadynposing as a “leftist” candidate againstnthe “usurper” de Gaulle (so termednbecause he had connived in a militarynputsch before burying the Fourth andncreating the Fifth Republic), he attackednthe General’s mode of governmentnin a book entitled he Coup d’etatnpermanent. Today he would prefer tonforget that he had ever written thatnblistering critique of autocratic government,nfor there was hardly a charge henthen made against de Gaulle that couldnnot be made against the present Frenchnpresident’s often peremptory modusngubernandi.nLast November the Paris weekly LenPoint published a cover story entitledn”Mitterrand—Le Roi et sa Cour” innwhich His would-be Majesty, dressednin a 17th-century perruque, matchednby regal cane, Versailles slippers, andnsilk stockings, was displayed making hisnhaughty way along an unrolled redncarpet. The accompanying articlesncontained a number of pointed charges.nThe uncrowned king of the republicnwas accused of self-adulationn(“Never has narcissism assumed such anscope, not even under Giscard, whonused the attributes of power rather thannpower itself”), of a dangerous “Caesarianndrift,” of an inordinate love ofnpomp and pageantry, of favoritism, ofnrule by a tiny clique of “insiders,” andneven of nepotism (“The surveillancenof Africa has been entrusted to one ofnhis sons, Jean-Christophe; diplomacyn40/CHRONICLESnto a very old friend, Roland Dumas;nspecial [i.e., top-secret] missions to yetnanother intimate friend, Frangois denGrossouvre, and sometimes — morenrarely of late — to his brothers Jacquesnand Robert. As in the time of thenCapetians, the republican monarch’snpower extends to the whole of hisnfamily and to all of his closest friends”).nShortly before Le Point came outnwith this critical assessment, one ofnFrance’s best radio journalists, PhilippenAlexandre, had reached much thensame conclusion in a best-selling bookn— Paysages de campagne (CampaignnLandscapes) — composed of scenes henhad witnessed, most of them duringnthe election campaign of the previousnMay and June. The collection begannwith one describing how he andnPhilippe Labro, director of RTLn(Radio-Television Luxembourg —nFrance’s most listened-to radio station),nhad one day been received by thenFrench president at the Elysee Palace.n”Mitterrand seated himself on a couchnand invited Labro and myself to sitndown beside him. The others” — thosenwhom Alexandre had previouslyntermed “the courtier-collaborators” —n”remained standing at attention, thenwomen included. From time to timenthe president would toss them a bit ofnbone: ‘I have not been too long?’ Andnall would immediately protest, fallingnall over themselves like kennel dogs.nPerfect, he had been perfect, luminous,nconcise, imperial. He swallowednthese sugary tid-bits with no show ofnsurprise, as though it was his dailynfare.”nWhat makes this situation so piquantnis not simply the obvious factnthat the neosocialist Monsieur Mitterrandnis now walking in the footsteps ofnthe republican monarch — le grandnCharles — he once castigated in suchnacrimonious terms; it is also the ironicnrealization that the biographical wheelnhas come full circle; for this samenFrangois Mitterrand is an older versionnof the Angouleme schoolboy who, likenhis father and his brothers, felt a passingnsympathy for the extreme rightwingn(and usually monarchist) ActionnFrangaise.nAbout Frangois Mitterrand’s latern”conversion” to socialism there is angreat deal to be said—far more thannthere is room for here. But what wasnparticularly intriguing, at least for me.nnnabout the accusations leveled againstnthe uncrowned president’s monarchicalnpretensions was his own querulousnreaction. Frangois Mitterrand, we wereninformed by persons in a position tonknow, was absolutely livid over thenspecial issue of Le Point, and furiousnthat anybody could harbor such misguidednnotions about a person whosenstaunchly republican credentials werenimpeccable.nIt is here that one can measure thenconsiderable gap that separatesnFrangois Mitterrand from the rashlyndecried man whose enormous powersnhe has inherited. The 1958 Constitutionnof the Fifth Republic, as is wellnknown, was tailor-made for Charles denGaulle, even though its crowning refinement—nhaving the president electednby the people of France rather thannby a “grand assembly” of notablesncomprising the two houses of parliament—nwas not added until later (thenautumn of 1962).nSome months after de Gaulle’s electionnto the presidency (Decembern1958), the Canard enchaine — which,nunless I am mistaken, is Europe’s oldestnsatirical weekly (it was founded backnin 1914)—began publishing a charminglynillustrated feature called “LanCour.” Written by Andre Riband innthe baroque style of Saint-Simon, thisnmarvelously old-fashioned chronicle ofnthe goings-on at the Elysee Palace wasna sustained tour de force that thenauthor managed to keep up not onlynfor a full decade, but even to prolongnfor several years, after Georges Pompidounhad succeeded the general, withna subsequent feature called “LanRegence.” De Gaulle, who occasionallynhad offending newspapers seizednthanks to the emergency powers grantednto him during the Algerian-wartimenyears (1958-1962), never once attemptednto have the Canard enchainensuppressed, knowing that it would havenbeen the height of folly and tantamountnto political suicide. In fact, henwas an assiduous reader of “La Cour,”nand far from being upset or miffed, henseems to have derived an Olympiannamusement at finding himself thusncompared, week after week, with LouisnXIV.nEven in France few persons, I suspect,nrealize just how Olympian thatndistance could sometimes be. For example,non April 21, 1961, which hap-n