FRANCE
Peace between the Republics
MARC ULLMANN
Paris—Tor me the war of the Republics is over.' This phrase which the new Prime Minister, M Chaban-Delmas, used in his speech to the National Assembly setting out his government's programme last Thursday cannot have much meaning abroad. But to a Frenchman it is as clear as the day. It means that, in the eyes of the new govern- ment, it is about time that the custodians of the Fifth Republic stopped reproaching the 'politicians' for having collaborated in the governments of the Fourth Republic, and also that the self-styled 'good Republi- cans' stopped implying that belonging to the Gaullist party constitutes an offence against public liberty.
The reconciliation is in fact making fine progress. The Minister of Justice, for ex- ample, is none other than M Rene Pleven, who was not only one of the many prime ministers of the Fourth Republic, but also the father of the European Army project which so profoundly divided political France in the early 1950s. The Foreign Minister, M Maurice Schumann, is indis- putably a Gaullist. But in a previous incar- nation he was President of the Catholic centre party, the MRP. Similarly M Giscard d'Estaing, M Jacques Duhamel, and M Joseph Fontanet belong to the new ministerial team in a manner which makes them appear, not as the hostages of the Gaullist majority, but rather as the pivots of a government of coalition.
M Chaban-Delmas, undoubtedly by mutual agreement with the President of the Republic, is all smiles and courtesy. As Time magazine remarked the other day, 'he sees a football, he kicks it. He sees an old man, he gives him a decoration. He sees a baby, he kisses it. He sees a wounded veteran, he helps him across the street. He sees a hand, he shakes it.' And under present circumstances the propensity to please is given free rein.
First off the Prime Minister called on M Alain Poher, the President of the Senate and, of course, M Pompidou's beaten rival. it wasn't a visit of protocol', said M Chaban-Delmas as he came out, 'it was a visit of friendship.' Then he requested no less than nine of his ministers to be in attendance at the Senate (the chamber, be it remembered, which de Gaulle had wished to pull to bits in his April referendum) to hear M Rene Pleven—picked for the pur- pose—read out the government's policy declaration. Last but not least, the assemb- led deputies were quick to note that the Prime Minister, far from cold-shouldering the opposition, went out of his way to chat hem up. 'Comment vas-tit, Francois' ' was
his smiling greeting to M Mitterand, the most violent of all the left wing critics of Gaullism, when he ran into him in the corridors of the Assembly building. To which M Mitterand could only reply in like terms: 'et comment vas-tit, Jacques?'
Small things, no doubt: but the message is clear. A certain form of Gaullism is dead: Gaullist intolerance, that mark of self-conscious virtue, and. above all, Gaul- list secrecy. In return for which the opposi- tion finally accepts the legitimate of the regime, consecrated by the ballot-box. General de Gaulle, notwithstanding his re- peated—if anything, indeed, too often re- peated—electoral successes, never ceased to be, for many politicians, the man who re- turned to power in 1958 under the shadow of the army revolt in Algiers. All this is buried: to such an extent that even the Communists stood to listen to the new President's message to the Assembly. No- body doubts that they, too, will be atten- ding the next Elysee garden party—a courtesy which both Communists and Socialists always refused to extend to General de Gaulle.
Yes, but . . . How is this new Gaullism, finally released from the memory of civil strife, going to manage its day-to-day affairs? For after all what counts is not the symbolic gesture but the action of government. Here the first thing to note is that President Pompidou is going to keep a personal eye on all that goes on. He will, of course, preside at the weekly Council of Ministers. He will also preside at regular Cabinet committees to which he attaches great importance. He has also indicated to M Chaban-Delmas that he will receive him in audience three times a week, so that he can be kept abreast of the progress of government work. Already some of the salons of the Elysee Palace have been turned into offices: the Presidential staff is going to be larger than it was under General de Gaulle—and it was not a small one then.
Probably the most striking and important distinction between the new tenant of the Elysee and the old concerns what is known as the Variable reserree'—i.e. the private policy preserve which, under General de Gaulle, extended to defence and foreign 'You want to know something? l'd rather be on a factory farm.' affairs, where he acted in mysterious, secret and unpredictable ways. From now on there is no 'domairie reserree', for the very simple reason that M Pompidou will concern him- self with everything—and also because it is not in his nature to hold power in isolation. Some of the ministers make no secret of their satisfaction. They feel they will now be told what goes on—and what is more, they will be allowed to smoke in Cabinet.
So the politicians see life through rose- tinted spectacles. To such an extent that a good many of the deputies seem to be for- getting that the economic outlook is far from rosy. Month by month, since the beginning of the year, the foreign trade deficit has steadily deteriorated, and the consumer price index has soared by more than half a point each month as well. The majority of Frenchmen have stopped saving altogether. The economic machine is racing ahead at a rate of expansion fed by infla- tion and incompatible with external equili- brium. The budget is going to be extremely difficult to draft; the salvaging of the franc promises to be an uncomfortable operation; and the return to work after the summer holidays could mark a period of heightened tension on the labour front.
M Pompidou, however, now has his honeymoon period ahead of him. Like the Americans. the French voters suspend judgment for a hundred days. And on this occasion they will do so with goodwill. For after all, they will be on holiday.
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