'GREENPEACE AFFAIR' SEEN HURTING MITTERRAND'S PROSPECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630015-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: September 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630015-7
ARTICLE
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
22 September 1985
`Greenpeace Affair' Seen Hurting
Mitterrand's Prospects
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Foreign Service
PARIS, Sept. 21-French polit-
ical commentators today said the
"Greenpeace affair" is likely to dam-
age Socialist President Francois
Mitterrand's chances of striking a
bargain with a new right-wing leg-
islature after crucial parliamentary
elections next March.
The sabotage of a protest ship be-
longing to the environmental organ-
ization Greenpeace has already pro-
voked the resignation of defense
minister Charles Hernu, a close
friend of Mitterrand. Hernu said yes-
terday that his senior military aides
had failed to tell him the full truth
about the sinking of the ship in New
Zealand, where it had stopped en
route to the South Pacific to protest
French nuclear tests.
The Greenpeace scandal has
erupted at a time when French pol-
itics isdominated by the question of
whether a right-wing National As-
sembly would agree to "cohabit" with
a left-wing president who still has
two years of his mandate to run. The
issue of "cohabitation," as it is known
here, has shaped the behavior of gov-
ernment and opposition,alike.
While Socialist Firty leaders
clearly hoped that the departure,of
Hernu and the head of the Secret
Service would defuse a political
time bomb that has been ticking
away ever since the July 10 sinking,
other commentators warned that
the scandal may merely have en-
tered a new phase with unpredict-
able consequences.
"The government remains vulner-
able to the slightest piece of infor-
mation that could resolve the mys-
tery" of who ordered the sinking,
said the right-wing Le Quotidien de
Paris. "If it comes under suspicion it-
self, the result could be fatal."
French officials said Hernu's re-
placement as defense minister, Paul
Quiles, had been told by the prime
minister to produce a-report on the
Greenpeace affair within a week. Es-
tablishing the truth is likely to be a
difficult task in view of the reluc-
tance of senior secret service offi-
cials to divulge what they consider to
be operational secrets.
Hernu's acknowledgement of a
cover-up was widely interpreted to-
day as implicit recognition by the
Socialist government that the
French secret services were in-
volved in the sinking of the Green-
peace ship Rainbow Warrior. Two
French agents are awaiting trial in
New Zealand on charges of arson,
conspiracy and murder of a Portu-
guese-born photographer who was
killed in the attack.
Serge July, an influential political
commentator, said Hernu's resig-
nation played havoc with Mitter-
rand's plans for striking a deal with
the right after next year's parlia-
mentary elections. Hernu, who
stressed the importance of main-
taining a national consensus on de-
fense policy, was the one Socialist
minister who was considered to
have had a chance of keeping his
post in a new government domi-
nated by the right.
"By sacrificing Hernu, Mitter-
rand has taken the risk of upsetting
his entire political strategy. 4t must
be assumed that he had no choice,"
wrote July in the independent leftist
paper Liberation.
Under the Fifth Republic, the po-
litical system put into effect by the
late Gen. Charles de Gaulle, a
strong president elected to a seven-
year term names a prime minister
and Cabinet. The National Assem-
bly has the power to force the dis-
solution of the government.
The prospect of "cohabitation"
raises much greater uncertainty in
-France than it does in the United
States, where the powers of the
legislature and the executive are
more clearly defined. The stability
of Fifth Republic institutions has
depended until now on the ability of
the president to impose his choice
of government and prime minister
on the National Assembly.
Over the past few months, Mit-
terrand has attempted to avert a
constitutional crisis by marking out
separate fields of activity for him-
self as president and a future gov-
ernment answerable to a right-wing
assembly. Citing the constitution,
he has suggested that the head of
state be responsible for foreign and
defense policies while the govern-
ment look after the economy and
domestic affairs.
The real danger of the Green-
peace scandal for Mitterrand, in the
view of mpny political analysts, is
that it undermines his reputation
for competence and skill in the han-
dling of national security issues.
The upheavals at the Defense Min-
istry were a major setback to the
president's attempts to turn the af-
fair to his advantage by posing as
the stubborn defender of France's
nuclear deterrent.
French commentators pointed
out that, by their handling of the
Greenpeace affair, the Socialists
have laid themselves open to the re-
newed opposition charges that they
are "amateurs" in the art of running
a country. In the French political
context, this is almost as damaging
as allegations' that they ordered the
sinking of the Greenpeace ship.
The traditional mistrust between
the Socialists and the military was
highlighted by the refusal of the
head of the secret services, Adm.
Pierre Lacoste, to divulge the
names of French agents who alleg-
edly sunk the Rainbow Warrior to
Hernu, his direct superior. In a let-
ter explaining his refusal, which
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630015-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630015-7
was published today, Lacoste said
that eventual publication of the
names could have endangered the
lives of French officers.
Lacoste's gesture was denounced
by Socialist Party leaders as "polit-,,t
ical provocation," but defended by,; l
some right-wing spokesmen and ,i
former secret service officials.
"He refused to reveal the names
of his soldiers because he did not
want the government to treat them
as scapegoats. I would have acted is
a similar way. This is a real boss,"
remarked Jean Rochet, the former.
head of the internal counterespio-
nage service.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630015-7