French Foreign Minister Louis de Guiringaud is expected to resign before the end of the year and be replaced by the Elysee Palace Secretary General Jean Francois-Poncet. De Guiringaud has been at the center of a political storm after he told a press conference here Monday that Israel and the Lebanese Christians were responsible for the blood bath in Lebanon.
French political sources stress, however, that President Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s decision to replace him is not connected with the wave of nationwide protests his statement had raised. These sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the President has been considering “for some time now” the replacement of de Guiringaud who is 67 years old.
All French political parties, including a number of Gaullist personalities, have protested de Guiringaud’s statement on Lebanon. Former Gaullist Premier Pierre Messmer told Parliament, “I am ashamed of what he (de Guiringaud) said.” Another former Gaullist Premier, Michel Debre, was equally emphatic in his criticism of the Foreign Minister’s “undiplomatic statements.”
Even Prime Minister Raymond Barre, who yesterday defended his government’s policy in Parliament, in the absence of de Guirigaud who failed to attend the session devoted to parliamentary questions on his statement, turned against his government colleague. Barre told a stormy House: “What is important is not to judge, let alone condemn, even if it is sometimes necessary to recall that neither emotion nor sympathy should result in partiality.”
De Guiringaud himself told reporters that he had stayed away from Parliament “because I did not feel like attending.” He added that he does not “have the feeling that the Prime Minister disavowed me.” The leader of de Guirigaud’s own political group, Claude Labbe, head of the Gaullist parliamentary party, said, however: “De Guiringaud should draw the conclusions and resign.”
It seems de Guirigaud made his statement with the full knowledge of Giscard, whose aim was to defuse the Lebanese situation by clearly notifying the Christians that they can expect no help from France and that the chances of foreign interventions are nil.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
