Veni, Vidi, Vici
By DARSIE GILLIE' GENERAL DE GAULLE has got his vote—a majority so great as almost to crush him as well as his opponents. Left and Right have voted for him. No group can now claim him as theirs.
And he starts on his four months of plenary powers, during which he must set up the institutions of the new republic, with a mandate so wide as to provide few indications and set no limits. For once the Communist leaders have been abandoned by half their usual flock. Millions of voters who certainly had not studied the new constitution, and normally would react against anything resembling personal government, showed that they preferred the risk of possible ills they did not know to those Pk they had experienced—the perpetual tendency of Fourth Republic politicians to make decisions in terms of secondary rather than primary considera- tions in order to catch the marginal vote; their inability to provide a new government in less than a month; their helplessness in face of military insubordination at Algiers.
The gallant little band of non-Communist oppo- nents to the new constitution were crushed be- cause, being unable by the nature of the situation to offer an alternative, they seemed to be advo- cating a revival of the regime that collapsed. in May. Who was to govern France while a new Constituent Assembly met? Who could guarantee that such an Assembly would produce a constitu- tion? After the humiliations of the first half of the year the nation was emotionally ready for one of those periodic expressions of almost sacramen- tal unity, of which General de Gaulle had already Paris
once been the orchestrator fourteen year's ago. There were, too, some very practical arguments. How could the, Left hope for a share in the new regime if it left it to the Right to install? The editor of Le Mande pointed out that it was not the sharp and able criticism of M. Mendes-France that upset the Right but the manner in which the Left-wing Socialist Mayor of Marseilles, M. Defferre, joined the 'ranks of the `Yesses.'
The General is well aware that, vast as are his temporary powers and huge as is his majority, political forces shift and majorities break up with astonishing speed in France. He will still put on gloves to handle the Algerian thistle this week, and none envies him the task of making his speech in Constantine on Friday—with the Algiers press clamouring to have the North African referendum results treated as if they represented a free vote in the same sense as those of metropolitan France, and are a binding contract between the two sides of the Mediterranean. The Algerian vote will re- main for future political scientists as the classical proof that freedom at the polling station is not enough to make a significantly free vote, when every other freedom is lacking. No doubt the Algerian `Messes' did include a great many which expressed a hope that General de Gaulle can do something to extricate that country from its pro- longed agony. They also provide visible evidence of the limits of the power of the FLN. In this respect they offer an opportunity. But if this opportunity is to be misused for one more political cheat, as the dominant politicians of Algiers de- mand, then there will be no limit to the prospect of disaster, not only for Algeria but for France. Inside France it is well to keep one's eye on the defeated as well as the victorious. The Fourth Republic was already dead and stinking, so that it cannot be classified amongst the former. Doubly defeated but none the less important are the non- Communist opponents of the new constitution. They are not the heirs of the Fourth Republic, for they were amongst its most vigorous critics in its decline, but they have been involved in its defeat, since the parliamentary cause they repre- sent has been contaminated by the example of what French parliamentarianism had become. That the other group of `No' voters was the Com- munists also involved them in confusion which the,Governmenes propagandists exploited.
Though the Communists have suffered a severe blow, it may prove momentary, since they have a strong organisation both above ground and below ground. The non-Communist opposition, how- ever, was formed by a loose alliance of groups, some of them themselves in process of finding their feet. Only now had a section of the Socialist Party split away from that body still led by the king of manceuvrers, M. Guy Mollet. M. Mende's- France contributed a minority group of Radicals, uncertain of its future. M. Mitterand contributed a small group of his own, and a further contribu- tion was provided by the union of the Socialist Left, of which M. Claude Bourdet is the best- known figure. It will be hard indeed to create a coherent political force out of these disparate elements after such a defeat. But these groups have provided during the last three years an indispen- sable independent weekly press which will cer- tainly be needed no less tomorrow. For the health of French politics under the Fifth no less than the Fourth Republic a vigorous non-Communist Left is urgently needed. M. Defferre's essential argument for voting 'Yes' was that such a 'Left' must be created with founder-members' rights within the Fifth Republic. But how far will the main body of the Socialist Party be coloured by M. Mollet's leadership, or by M. Defferre's? It is not likely that the former will in the long run be very successful in preventing the Communist Party from rallying again those who have on this occa- sion strayed from the party line.
At all events, within the vast majority that has approved the new constitution a complicated re- grouping is in progress. Gaullists like M. Soustelle who never ceased to chainpion the General, though they were by no means always his docile followers, are naturally hoping to restore the great days of the French People's Rally when it cap- tured more than a third of the electorate ten years ago. But they have been much divided since then and they will be competing with the other parties now represented in the General's government. There is M. Pinay, for instance, the Conservative Minister of Finance, who became Prime Minister in 1952 by seducing some thirty Gaullist deputies from their allegiance. How far will General de Gaulle allow his name to be used by any political group, now that his destiny is to be President of the Republic above party from the beginning of next year?
Increasingly as the four months pass, and the General draws nearer to the Presidency, the ques- tion of his succession in the premiership will arise. Much will depend on the elections to the Assem- bly, but though these may exclude some men they are unlikely to be decisive in any one man's favour. But will it be a favour to be Prime Minister under *such a mighty President?
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