PARIS Reuter: Frances Socialist President and his rightwing Prime Minister appear to have set aside political differences in a rare exhibition of solidarity in the fight against a wave of Middle East linked bombings.

President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac have not often been seen in public together since the socialists were ousted in the March Parliamentary elections.

But the two men broke with protocol last night to travel in the same car from the airport on Mitterrand’s return to Paris from a visit to Indonesia.

 They immediately held a crisis meeting at the Presidential Elysee Palace with Security Minister Charles Pasqua and Interior Minister Robert Pasqua but remained silent about what was discussed.

Mitterrand comes back to take control of a city showing the signs of strain after five bomb attacks in just over a week have left eight people dead and 160 injured.

After Wednesdays bombing on a cut-price clothing store crowded with women and children who killed five people and caused horrific injuries to dozens of others the bloodiest attack yet the city has a deserted air about it.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 26, 1986