Does France Need a Government ?
On Wednesday, July 12th, France at last obtained a Govern- ment, but she had not had one since June 24th, the day before Communist troops invaded South Korea. It is possible to ask whether a country whidh can carry on without a Government in three such weeks of crisis really needs one at all. The question is not as fantastic as it looks, for quite apart from the fact that the activities of French Governments, when they do exist, are strictly limited by complex political pressures, there are always plenty of well-informed French cynics to point out that the antics of the parties are 'irrelevant anyway, the stability of France being something independent of the performance of the National Assembly. M. Rend Pleven, who belongs to a small party which is called the Union Dinzocratique et Socialiste de la Resistance and which is closely affiliated with the Radicals, has now formed a Government consisting of Socialists, Radicals and members of the M.R.P.— and who cares ? This attitude is sufficiently well known. In its more extreme form, as expressed in the pronouncements of General de Gaulle, it leads straight to proposals for the abandon- xi-lent of the present constitution. But it is a dangerous argument in any case. It may not matter N;ery much so far as routine operations are concerned, but it is absolutely vital when a real crisis occurs that the Government of the day should be able to act quickly, in the knowledge that the vast majority of the people will back it up. In France, where' the Communists complicate every crisis, a strong and compact Government is doubly necessary. All that outsiders can hope is that France will get such a Govern- ment before some major upheaval either at home or abroad arrives to point the moral.
