The Prime Minister’s Office said today that there has been “no change” in Premier Golda Meir’s plans to visit Paris this week-end for a meeting of the Socialist International. The statement was issued several hours after President Georges Pompidou of France angrily accused the heads of five governments, including Israel’s, of interfering in France’s internal politics by accepting the invitation of the Socialist opposition during the French election campaign. Elections for a new National Assembly will be March 4 and 11.
The Prime Minister’s office further said Mrs. Meir had not been in contact with the other Socialist premiers about Pompidou’s statement at a Paris press conference yesterday, deploring their planned attendance at the meeting Saturday and Sunday. The officials said she had decided alone not to change her plans and that apparently the premiers of Sweden, Denmark and Austria had also decided alone. The officials said there had been no discussion of the matter with Bruno Pitterman, secretary of the Socialist International, or with other Socialist leaders.
Mrs. Meir’s spokesman had no comment about Pompidou’s remarks. He did not mention any of the premiers by name and angrily rejected one reporter’s question singling out Mrs. Meir. Diplomatic sources here disclosed today that the French Ambassador, Francis Hure, had on several occasions advised the Foreign Ministry that his government considered. Mrs, Meir’s visit inopportune at this time. The sources said Hure’s representations were made before the Premier formally announced her intention to go to Paris at a Cabinet meeting Dec. 24. Observers here said that the only possibility that Mrs. Meir might change her plans was if all the premiers referred to by Pompidou decided to change theirs.
(West Germany’s Social Democratic Party said today in Bonn that it was not bothered by Pompidou’s remarks. The SPD is sending a low-level delegation to the Socialist International. Chancellor Willy Brandt will not attend.)
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