ROUND 1 TO CHOOSE FRANCE'S PRESIDENT

SURPRISE has been the only predictable quality in French politics of late, and when the people of France went to the polls this week to choose a new President, they still had some surprises to offer. According to form, ex-Premier Georges Pompidou ran well ahead of the other six candidates. As expected, he failed to attain a majority of the votes cast, necessitating a run-off election on June 15. His opponent then will be Interim President Alain Poher, and that, too, had been anticipated. What was unexpected was Poher's failure to get more than a quarter of the votes cast. It was a sharp drop in his earlier support, and it appeared largely due to the strong, late showing of Communist Jacques Duclos, an ebullient campaigner who more than doubled his initially expected share of the vote. With virtually all the returns counted on election night, Pompidou had a strong 44% of the tally, Poher only 23%, with Duclos close behind at 22%.

Both Poher and Pompidou had conducted campaigns that promised something for everyone. Poher, the folksy Frenchman who in the short space of six weeks had come from the obscurity of the Senate to make a bid for Charles de Gaulle's vacated job, presented a 12-point program that amounted to a New Deal for France complete with the ringing promise to make telephones available to every home.* Pompidou promised only slightly less, and added the guarantee that his promises would be kept, thanks to the fact that only he commands the Gaullist majority in the National Assembly. Carrying that message, Pompidou galloped through every part of France, visiting 42 towns within two weeks.

Un-Gaullizing France. True to his self-styled image as a draft candidate of the people, Poher conducted the finale of his campaign in his official residence as Senate president. It was in the Senate itself, in April, that plain-talking Alain Poher had mounted his challenge to De Gaulle and his referendum. Now, as a leading candidate to succeed De Gaulle, Poher summoned the press to announce his "plan of action."

An election, he declared, is a "contract between the person elected and the electorate." What followed were the terms of Poher's own contract proposal, and they constituted a clear bid to un-Gaullize France. He pledged to renew ties with the Atlantic alliance, and to reduce France's heavy foreign aid load. Domestically, he promised to chip away at De Gaulle's extravagant "prestige items" and to work for decent housing for everyone, job security and protection against illness.

Change and Continuity. Pompidou, who had campaigned in executive jet, helicopter and auto, heard of Poher's platform at a rally in Toulouse. He brought down the house with the laser wit that has constantly amused his large crowds. "I will not recite to you the twelve commandments of God," he assured his audience, but then delightedly mimicked one: "Thou shalt construct housing--without any money, of course."

Nor was Pompidou without his own expensive-sounding promises. He told embittered repatriates from Algeria that they deserve indemnity payments and low-interest loans that could cost $10 million yearly. Pompidou pledged to work for tax relief benefiting artisans and shopkeepers that would reduce government revenues by $200 million, promised monthly salaries for hourly workers. In every speech, Pompidou's closing argument was that of the candidate who could provide both change and continuity: only he could effect one while maintaining the other. Time and again, he pointed out that Poher would face the hostile Gaullist Assembly, which could censure his government and lead France back to the swinging-door days of the Fourth Republic. He compared France, if it chose Poher, to "a hitchhiker [une auto-stoppeuse] who would climb into the first car that comes along without knowing the driver on the pretext that he looks good."

In the privacy of the polling booth, enough Frenchmen agreed with that assessment to enhance Pompidou's predicted showing and cut into Poher's vote. What really hurt Poher, however, was the vigorous and effective stretch drive of Communist Duclos, a jolly onetime pastry chef who drew gales of laughter from his audiences by concluding that Poher and Pompidou were about as different as "measles and scarlet fever." A tireless campaigner at 72, Duclos darted by Metro from one campaign rally to another in Paris, but also bustled off for appearances across France. He aimed to prove that France's Communists would vote for a Communist President, and they did--in very nearly the numbers in which they turn out to elect Communist deputies.

Poher's disappointing vote in Round 1 is likely to work to Pompidou's advantage in Round 2. For it makes clear that the only way Poher can win is by picking up nearly all the Communist vote. This inescapable equation will surely alienate many of his centrist backers, who will fear that such indebtedness to the Communists must be repaid in the composition of any Poher government. Recognizing this, Pompidou in a victory statement invited Poher to withdraw from Round 2. Said Pompidou: "I hope M. Poher, who declared himself a 'unity' candidate, will understand how much his withdrawal in the runoff would allow me to continue the policies that I have announced." Minutes later, Poher succinctly declined the offer to quit the fray. "I will definitely maintain my candidacy," he said. Did he ever have any idea of giving up? Replied Poher: "Jamais!" --and so Round 2 began.

* Reminiscent of Henry IV of France (1553-1610), who reportedly observed: "I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday." In modern France, it's not the lack of wherewithal but the lack of telephones that is the problem.

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