Return to the Fourth Republic
Douglas Johnson
General de Gaulle was once asked about the great emptiness which would follow him in France. There would be no emptiness, he said, there would rather be an overflow. This time he was right. When it comes to Presidential candidates it is not the vide, it is the tropplein. Although Pompidou was a long time in dying, his death caught everyone by surprise. This was especially the case with the Gaullists who have become almost characterised, ever since 1968, by an ability to be surprised by events. Consequently, the President's death was followed by a flood of possible names. Some of them had scarcely had an airing before. There was Jobert, whose statements on foreign affairs, particularly when made in foreign capitals, had dismayed France's allies but had delighted the French; there was Royer, who was said to represent the silent majority (although nobody said why); there was Chirac, who had just been made Minister of the Interior and who, it was claimed, was being groomed by Pompidou as his eventual successor; there was Couve de Murville, one of the few men about whom the General had been generous and unstinting in praise. Napoleon might have said that you can never have too many men on the field of battle, but for the first two days after Monsieur Pompidou's death, the Gaullists were embarrassed by this wealth of choice. The right had always ridiculed the left for being divided. Now, with the left taking it for granted that both the Communists and the Socialists would have only the one candidate, Francois Mitterand, it was the right which appeared ridiculous. The question was resdlved for the Gaullists by a single, bold initiative. Although it was rumoured that Pompidou had given a verbal message, designating his Prime Minister, Messmer, as his successor, and although both the President's private office and Monsieur Chirac were working for Messmer's candidature, it was the preceding prime minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who announced that he was a candidate and who claimed that he stood for the Guallists. It was as if he knew his English history and was recalling the days when Queen Anne was dying, when it was said that he who would be first in London would be king. At all events, his campaign
was ready, his committees in existence, his
posters printed. Then having violated party procedure, he proceeded to regularise his position and to demonstrate his strength. Last Sunday he swept into the central committee of the Gaullist party. It was, said one commentator, like Bonaparte entering the Chamber in Brumaire 1799. Everyone applauded him (including Messmer and Chirac). No one objected to what had happened. "We were," said Couve de Murville afterwards, "faced by a fait accompli." Chaban announced his plan of campaign. He said that the situation was dangerous, and that with a single left-wing candidate, liberty was threatened. He spoke of establishing a contract with each and every Frenchman, a contract of progress. Then, after a mere ten minutes, he went out, emphasising that he was not only the candidate of the Gaullist party but that he was also the candidate of the nation. This recalled Pompidou in 1969. And as if to confirm this omen, a few hours later came the first opinion poll which stated that it was Chaban-Delmas who had the best chance among the Gaullists of winning the election.
But in the meantime two other candidates had appeared from the same political area, although neither of them were officially Gaullist. There was Christian Fouchet, who not only claims to embody a pure version of the ideas of de Gaulle when he attacks Pornpidolian Gaullism, but who even succeeds in sounding like him. And there was Edgar Faure, the President of the Assembly who had been prime minister under the Fourth Republic, and who now revealed • this one last ambition, to become President of the Republic. After all, he could claim to have been as close to the General as Fouchet. He had always been entrusted with the difficult and important missions and tasks, such as his visit to China, a long stint as Minister for Agriculture, and the reform of the universities after 1968. He is undeniably intelligent, and his experience is considerable. Furthermore, as a man of the Fourth Republic, as a parliamentarian and as a reformer who has for long talked about the need to make extensive reforms in France's rigidly bureaucratic structure, he can claim the support of voters
SThpecetatorApril 13, 19118 who are well to the left of the Gaullists.0 too was obstinate about his candidatur,41 Valery Giscard D'Estaing has behaved a very different way from either Chaban Edgar Faure. A private opinion poll, receiw on Sunday, is supposed to have given hiro!°1 the candidate most likely to succeed in t'") elections (although this report has been conG tested). His behaviour has been almost OP cessively prudent. Firstly he saw Messmer an n offered to support him if he were a candidd h Then he saw Edgar Faure and suggested AU arrangement whereby they would both 10candidates until the eve of the first ballnli then whoever was in the lead according tot polls would benefit from the withdrawal ° the other. He delayed making any annoutlq ment of his candidature until he could h13:, w public attention, and then he chose to sPe from his department of Puy de Dime in Auvergne (Monsieur Pompidou's regiol stating significantly, that he would be mak) a special announcement, addressed to "Era°_ caises et Francais."
This hesitation on the part of Giscard linked with a certain disarray in his party. 0 Independent Republicans, which parallels till
of the Gaullists. By last Sunday certa st members of this party had already jumped dt to the Chaban-Delmas bandwagon, as th, saw the efficiency with which it was beg m fling to move. But the Independent Repuh,,a, cans were also the first to express a certmili pessimism which goes through the major' The evening of the President's death sorn/fo Independent Republicans were, in the Xbt sembly, prophesying that if the Commuid put forward their own candidate (which the fe won't) and if Mitterand stood for 0,0ii Socialists (which he will), then the Socialiskat and Communists would come first and sealth in the first ballot, and the second, or run-FA ballot, would be between them, to the exo,A, sion of all the non-socialist parties. Add to this, the fact that many Gaullists a pl disgusted by the spectacle of division whicA their leaders have shown, and will probahip therefore abstain (and this spectacle was 3, w the more noticeable because the late Frelpi dent's memorial service was allegedly turnesti, into 'unfestival Nixon,' where the future °. Europe was discussed without French partA cipation). Then the old political hands already shaking their heads over Chaban• tactics and saying that he has started in Or 4 gear too soon and is bound to lose mornell:1,1 tuna. Thus there are all the makings of cal panic, and the majority will meet the crinl'"4 with a violent anti-communist campaiglio • predicting chaos if Mitterand is electe pointing the example of Chile, and trottig. out Solzhenitsin in order to show what Soviel Russia is really like. a! a
to at
; Mitterand, Faure and Chaban-Delmas: they 'are all former members of the Radical party. 1.theY are all former ministers of the Fourth UlePublic; they say `tu' to each$ other. Their / eaMPaigns will not be too bitter. And as men of the Fourth Republic, each one of them Would be a muted president (as would be Giscard). The bitter controversy over Porn !Pidou's illness, that it was concealed and deed fot. so long, that it must have effected ,flirn for at least two years, is likely to increase 'he demand for some reduction in presidential 1
, powers. Both in practice and in theory, we are gradually returning to the Fourth Republic. But it should not be forgotten that the greatest achievements of the Republic were in foreign policy. Whoever emerges from this hotly contested election will have to affirm his position in France. And the way to do that is still by affirming his position in Europe and in the World.
Douglas Johnson is Professor of French History at University College, London
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