ABSTRACT
Valery Giscard d'Estaing has the unshakable self-confidence, the desinvolture, which goes with his protected life and brilliant career. The Central African scandal, a story which the satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaine, humorlessly pursued, is now to be taken up in the law courts as writs of libel fly furiously from the outraged members of Giscard's family. Once upon a time, as in the affair over Queen Marie Antoinette's diamond necklace, scandals may have been premonitory signs of a revolution to come. Scandal, to be sure, weapon in politics; but political interests often dictate an anomalous puristic or puritanical attitude on the part of the leading politicians concerned. If all are somehow involved, then all like to appear loftily above the battle. At the moment neither the Conservative Right nor the Communist Left wants to help the Socialists in any way, and it is the forces of Francois Mitterrand and Michel Rocard who would benefit from any public dismay or outrage.
