Pompidou: No Contacts Will Be Made with Premiers Attending Conference

President Georges Pompidou said here today that French officials will have no contact whatsoever with the five heads of government who are due to attend the Socialist International conference here. Speaking at a press conference, the French President said: “By their own admission, these Premiers come as members of their political parties and not as statesmen or representatives of their countries. We shall treat them as such and have no contact with them.”

The five Premiers due to attend the International Socialist meeting here next Saturday and Sunday are Israeli Premier Golda Meir, and the Premiers of Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Norway. It was Mrs. Meir’s announced presence which precipitated a violent controversy in political circles here. Pompidou, who spoke in apparent irritation, stated, “We consider their presence in Paris in a pre-electoral period as inopportune, with everything which this word implies…interference in internal French political affairs.”

The French President at no point actually mentioned Mrs. Meir by name. When a French reporter mentioned hen by name, Pompidou said: “I did not specifically refer to Mrs. Meir, but to all five. It seems to me that you are obsessed with the Israeli Premier.” Pompidou bitterly attacked the five saying they all knew that French legislative elections were to be held next March. “Some people say that the date of the conference was actually moved up in an apparent attempt to boost Mr. Mitterand’s (French Socialist Party leader Francois Mitterand who leads the anti-government opposition) prestige,” he said.

When asked about the Middle East, Pompidou said that “the coming months, after Vietnam is settled, might bring forth new attempts to reach a settlement.” Noting that these attempts would probably be limited to obtaining a partial settlement, he stated that “the important thing is not to sacrifice the chance of a total settlement for the sake of a partial one.”