France: Madame 19% Flunks Out

She did not govern quietly, and she did not go quietly. Sharp-tongued Prime Minister Edith Cresson, 58, drew fire while in office for having called the Japanese "ants" and saying that one-quarter of Anglo-Saxon men are homosexuals. In her letter of resignation, she complained that she had not been allowed to "fully complete" her mission.

Only 10 months after President Francois Mitterrand made her the first woman to hold France's second highest office, she was forced to withdraw. Her resignation follows the ruling Socialist Party's humiliating trouncing two weeks ago in regional elections.

Cresson -- scorned at the end of her tenure as "Madame 19%" for her abysmal standing in the popularity polls and her party's devastating election results -- had to take much of the blame. Near record unemployment of 9.9% accounted for the rest.

Pierre Beregovoy, 66, the powerful Economics and Finance Minister, who was named to succeed her, is expected to restore some confidence in the party before parliamentary elections in March 1993. The son of a Ukrainian immigrant and a member of the Resistance during World War II, he is one of the few Socialist leaders from a working-class background.

Beregovoy is a defender of a "strong franc" and fiscal orthodoxy. He may also be the Socialists' last trump card.