France's Sudden Election
BOSWELL, GEORGE B.
Two anti-Communist blocs ?one led by Mendes-France, the other by Faure ?compete for votes on January 2 FRANCE'S SUDDEN ELECTION By George B. Boswell Paris Edgar Faure achieved in defeat E what...
...On the eve of the last vole of confidence on the electoral issue, when the Communists had decided to stop supporting the Government, it was plain that the Government would be defeated by300 votes or more...
...Faure's opposition handed him a ready-made victory by voting too massively against him...
...The adherents of the scrutind'arrondissement also pointed out that it would constitute the most effective method of cutting down Communist representation, which, with about the same electoral support as in 1951, would drop from 103 to about 65 deputies...
...A month of labyrinthine maneuvers brought about France's current, unscheduled election campaign...
...Hut it cannot forever contain a genuine leftwing movement if such a movement really has strong roots in the country...
...who could now assure Faure's defeat...
...Former Premier Pierre Mendes France leads the most spectacular of these movements, designed to sweep the country and place him at the head of a new left-of-center coalition...
...But this would also accentuate the existing cleavage between the Center and the Socialists and could drive the non-Communist Left closer to the Communists...
...On the other hand...
...Furthermore, it was generally believed that, even in the event of an exceptionally successful campaign, the Mendecistes...
...Of the 318 votes cast against Faure.8 were cast by moderates who had previously voted in favor of the Government's plan for elections in December under the existing law...
...Two anti-Communist blocs ?one led by Mendes-France, the other by Faure ?compete for votes on January 2 FRANCE'S SUDDEN ELECTION By George B. Boswell Paris Edgar Faure achieved in defeat E what he had been unable to obtain from the National Assembly in five weeks of heated parliamentary maneuvers...
...Worried by Mendes-France, the Government hoped to nip the threat in the bud by calling early elections...
...The MRP, which considers itself destined to transcend arbitrary distinctions between Right and Left, is, on principle, opposed to any electoral method calling for a runoff, since it leaves no room on the second ballot for a" third-force" party...
...Since numerous parties compete in each district, few seats are carried on the first ballot...
...In 1951.the Socialists had entered many apparentements with the center and rightist parties, since they had participated in nearly all the coalition governments of the first five postwar...
...In these parliamentary maneuvers, the very composition of the next Assembly was at stake...
...to men who would accept Communist support...
...whose enmity he has incurred through his virulent attacks upon the party leaders and through his non-support of EDC...
...Mendes France's insistence on the arrondissement, unacceptable to a small but distinct majority of the deputies, killed chances of reaching a compromise acceptable to both the Socialists and the Government parties...
...This system tends to stress local issues, parish-pump politics, and to accentuate the conflict between Right and Left, or oppose "clerical" to" anti-clerical" candidates...
...A smaller movement called the "Nouvelle Gauche" used this climate to attempt to promote a rapprochement between then on-Communist Left and the Communists...
...Here these maneuvers are explained by George B. Boswell, former Professor of French at Smith College, who is now studying French polities under a Farfield Foundation grant...
...Since then, however, the Socialist party has gone into opposition...
...Facing growing extremism on its right and the mounting Mendes France movement on the left, the Faure Government on October 25called for elections in December...
...Furthermore, the forthcoming campaign cannot be centered on a broad, negative anti-Communist coalition as it was in 1951...
...Socialists and liberal Gaullists could not form a successful government by themselves...
...The large protest vote, seemingly indicated by heavy initial registration, could go either to them or to the Mendes-France alliance...
...The Mendes-France forces desired a more personal electoral system where party alignments were not compulsory, in order to retain a wide field of maneuverability...
...Mencles-France's plans provoked violent reactions in many quarters, for Mendes-France is unorthodox and controversial...
...This gave him the opportunity to dissolve the Assembly and hold elections under the system of apparentements, which most of his own supporters favored...
...On the other hand...
...Party considerations also weighed heavily in the decision...
...The elections will take place on January2...
...He successfully captured control of the Radical Socialist party, and in the campaign just begun has allied the majority of that party in a new" Republican front" with the Socialists and the left-wing Gaullists...
...This enabled Faure to dissolve the Assembly and call elections within 30 days, since for the first time under the Fourth Republic two governments within eighteen months had been overthrown by a constitutional majority...
...In fact, the dissolution itself may have been partly engineered by members of Faure's Government...
...The Mendecistes, Socialists and Gaullists, either anxious to have more time to prepare the elections or honestly opposed to the existing electoral law...
...The runoff is then usually a contest between the two leading contenders, the other candidates withdrawing in favor of one of them, a process known as" desistement...
...Radical apparentements with the Right parties would be successful in27 departments...
...By its emphasis on individuals, it would have served Mendes-France, who planned a campaign which would cut across party lines to encourage voters, even Communist voters, to vote for men rather than parties...
...Such popular support, including that of many who vole Communist, can be enlisted in the struggle to preserve French democracy by a liberal program of economic and social progress which will clearly indicate that democracy can be made to work for all the people...
...Or it could be the Communist party, seemingly willing to participate on "easy terms" in a popular front...
...Faure's coup may well bring a majority to the right-of-center forces led by Foreign Minister Antoine Pinay...
...The 1951 law--which will now operate again--authorized "apparent ements" or associations between the parties, and reintroduced the concept of "the whole list wins" in case any list or "associated lists" won an absolute majority of the votes...
...If no list or combination of lists won an absolute majority, the seats were assigned among all contending lists on a proportional basis...
...Such considerations pushed the Faure Government to press for early elections...
...hoping to overthrow the Government while delaying elections till spring...
...The desistement lends itself to secret deals and horse-trading, and in many districts the Communists could become the final arbiters of contests between non-Communists...
...These swift developments make it very difficult to predict the outcome of the elections...
...This could be the MRP...
...This is due to regional conditions: Radical and Socialist strongholds do not normally coincide and apparentements between these two parlies, according to 1951 figures, could win absolute majorities in only5 departments...
...Some other major party would have to participate...
...Others look suspiciously on the position he has recently assumed toward the Communists...
...The 1951 law met strong opposition from different quarters...
...The broad anti-Communist front of the 1951 elections has been so weakened that today even new right wing formations place little emphasis on the Communist issue...
...In 1951, France was faced by an important Gaullist movement and a strong Communist party, which together would have won a majority of Assembly seats had the elections been held under proportional representation...
...Faure and his coalition were also preoccupied with the new political movements being organized in anticipation of next June's regular elections...
...The Communists thus stand a chance of improving their representation even if their vote declines...
...Speakers of all parties then argued the virtues of their reform measures, but the Assembly defeated some fifteen proposed electoral reform bills--proving, at best, that the only existing majority stood steadfast against any change...
...The electoral-reform debate could have continued...
...Since local political figures long prominent have a net advantage, this system would have benefited the older, wellimplanted Radical and Socialist parties...
...It now appears, however, that there will be two large blocs--the Republican Front and the Government coalition--in addition to the Communists and the Poujade forces...
...If the Government parties can establish an effective system of apparentements...
...The arrondissement, however, was strongly opposed by the Communists, the MRP (Christian Democrats) and most of the conservatives...
...These movements are primarily organized to defend the special interests of farmers, artisan- and small shopkeepers...
...Observers pointed to the violent tone of the polemic directed against the MRP and the moderate parties by L'Express, which at the same time maintained an equivocal detachment toward the Communists...
...Associated lists that won an absolute majority divided the seats among themselves according to the polled strength of each list...
...Ironically enough...
...As the fight grew in intensity, the opponents assumed more and more intransigent positions...
...In 1951, almost all the center parties were allied under the apparentement system to oppose both Communists and Gaullists, and in 31 departments those associated lists obtained an absolute majority...
...then proposed "electoral reform...
...The Socialist party, refusing to make indiscriminate alliances with the parties on its right, might be isolated under the system of apparentements between two major blocs--the Government parties and the Communists--thus leaving it with the choice of losing many seats or of accepting regional apparentements with the Communists...
...who has led the opposition to Government tax collections, has given the moderate parties considerable concern...
...Several recent speeches by Mendes-France, particularly one at Aubervilliers, a Parisian Communist stronghold, revealed an unwillingness to discuss frankly the possibility of Communist participation in his "left-wing coalition...
...The MRP will admit associations which are publicly proclaimed before the balloting begins, but it desperately opposes the desistements which take place before the runoff elections of the arrondissement...
...Mendes-France rejected Communist support--on the grounds that the CP opposed his proposals for electoral reform...
...312 votes were needed to achieve the constitutional majority which would enable Faure to dissolve the Assembly immediately...
...In its anxiety to defeat Faure"s plan for early elections, the opposition brought his government down by a vote larger than the constitutional majority...
...Many French men, traditionally wary of dominant personalities, fear the strength of his personal leadership and distrust his inability to delegate authority...
...and will be contested under the much-criticized 1951 electoral law...
...Much will depend upon how the apparentements are used...
...This means that in a great many electoral districts straight proportional representation will operate...
...If no candidate wins a majority on the first ballot, runoff elections are held two weeks later, at which time a simple plurality prevails...
...They saw in his movement disturbing signs of chauvinism, and noted that the Radical program made no reference to the effort toward European unity...
...Without those 8 votes cast against him, Faure would have been out of office, and unable to dissolve the Assembly...
...The supporters of the "European" movement remembered him as the man who assured the defeat of EDC...
...The Government's proposal was based on the argument that major policy decisions would have to be taken in the immediate future concerning Morocco, Algeria and the Saar question, and that these decisions should be taken by an Assembly with a fresh mandate...
...The law which had been tailored to meet the circumstances of 1951 was consideredby many deputies ill-designed for the coming elections...
...With the support of the Socialists, it initiated a drive to reinstate the" scrutinyd'arromlissement," or single member district...
...It also confirmed a growing fear among the MRP and moderates that the crusading intransigence of the Mendes France movement was driving it to lose contact with the center parties...
...they can hurt Mendes France and profit greatly from the electoral system...
...He sought, through his personal leadership and with the help of L'Express, a crusading political daily, to build up a major popular movement in order to revamp and rejuvenate France's political and economic life...
...Recent declarations of certain left-wing Socialist deputies seemed to indicate that, under certain conditions, control of the Socialist party might pass from its present pro-European leaders, Guy Mollet and Christian Pineau...
...The background of these events sheds light on the campaign now in progress...
...The followers of Mendes-France were equally opposed to the apparentements, for it would tempt the Radicals to alliances with parties on its right, rather than with the Socialists...
...When electoral alliances had to be formed, however...
...As Premier in 1954...
...The success of Pierre Poujade...
...He had steadily refused their support, but more recently he has not attacked them directly, for his movement hopes to attract the support of some Communist voters...
...But to date Mendes-France has made no effort toward a reconciliation with the MRP...
...At the end of October, the Faure Government's policies in Algeria and Morocco cost it the support of the Gaullists...
...The Communists were deprived of 71 seats they would have won under straight proportional representation: the Gaullists were deprived of 26 seats...
Vol. 38 • December 1955 • No. 50
