ABSTRACT
Jacques Chirac's rally to the non-Gaullist Giscard d'Estaing was resented in the Gaullist party where the unceremonious ditching of one of the major 'compagnons' was seen as betrayal. Giscard had long been regarded as presidential material and he was backed by his own non-Gaullist Republican Independent party. Giscard made Chirac Prime Minister in what could have been interpreted as the beginning of a 'Giscardian' takeover of the leaderless Gaullist party. However, the Prime Minister turned out to be the source of resistance to Giscard and used his position to take over the party himself, promising to keep the movement together and out of the President's hands. Communists returned to the old Leninist stance of 'unity at the base', the wooing of Socialist voters away from their party and the refusal to deal with the Socialist leadership. Centre parties, however, did not move to the President's side and the Socialist Party was alone in the front line against the right.
