The Ideal French Premier
BONDY, FRANCOIS
By Franqois Bondy The Ideal French Premier Anyone whom the Constitution permitted to act Paris A phrase frequently heard in French discussions of foreign policy is "interlocuteur valable"—a man...
...Particularly hopeless was the effort to make a picturesque figure of the latest incumbent, Bourges-Maunoury, one of the worst speakers in the National Assembly who possessed none of the strengths or weaknesses of the typical French politician...
...By Franqois Bondy The Ideal French Premier Anyone whom the Constitution permitted to act Paris A phrase frequently heard in French discussions of foreign policy is "interlocuteur valable"—a man with whom one can safely negotiate, knowing that he can implement whatever agreement he concludes...
...He also lacks time to concentrate on the vital questions of national scope...
...All the powers which in America arc delegated to the individual states are vested here in the central government, which through its prefects directly administers not only France and Algeria but distant islands of the West Indies and Oceania...
...What is needed is a very small change—not in these men but in the French Constitution...
...Edgar Faure or Maurice Faure, he would probably be the "right" man for the job once he got the time to prove himself...
...If this were adopted, France would have the "interlocuteur valable" she needs...
...Inevitably, a Premier who wants to accomplish something is forced to behave like a second Alexander, cutting Gordian knots right and left in a matter of weeks...
...The world has made the acquaintance of the most varied French statesmen, ranging from General Charles de Gaulle, who looks like a totem pole, to Georges Bidault, who looks like a bouncing little toy figure...
...Newspaper readers have had to get used to the bull-necked, slow-moving Joseph Laniel and the nervous, hurried Pierre Mendes-France...
...The safest French Premier is therefore one who avoids arousing any suspicion in the Assembly that he might be a strong personality...
...There is no need to draw a picture of the ideal French Premier who could stay in office long enough to put through his program...
...Any French Premier who really wielded the authority bestowed by this centralized state for any period of time would possess a kind of Napoleonic omnipotence...
...What France has had is a series of alternating Premiers, who hold office for two, six or perhaps ten months and seem chiefly concerned with "falling" as gracefully as possible so as not to damage their prospects for a future return to power...
...Ability, wisdom, popularity and tact have been at least as well represented among French as among foreign government heads...
...For years, France could reach no settlement in Indo-China, Morocco and Tunisia because there was no "interlocuteur" on the other side...
...from upsetting a government...
...This sort of swift hurdling of obstacles is the only possible way, but even the fastest runner is eventually overtaken by the slow-moving Assembly...
...A country doctor, a tannery owner and various lawyers and school teachers have been portrayed as "man of the year" only to prove no more than "Premier of the month...
...Whether the Premier was Pinay or Pineau...
...Francois Bondv, a Swiss journalist, is the editor-in-chief of Preuves...
...Some of them could be made familiar to the public only through a minor idiosyncrasy—Bidault with his glass of champagne, Mendes-France with his glass of milk—but it was usually not worth the effort...
...The old term is being turned against its originator, for the chief missing element in any negotiations with France is a French Premier who can offer any sort of continuity in policy...
...Today, the French cite the unavailability of such a negotiating partner in the Algerian crisis...
...The answer is distressingly simple: A French Premier is above all a man who has no time...
...This explains the fall of those Premiers who are popular outside the Assembly and could even count on public support against it, e.g., de Gaulle, Pinay, Mendes-France...
...Why have the wise Robert Schuman, the shrewd Edgar Faure, the earthy Antoine Pinay, the dynamic Pierre Mendes-France all failed...
...Out of fear of this omnipotence, Parliament condemns him to impotence...
...Hence the frantic haste of Mendes-France, who in a few weeks ended the war in IndoChina, brought the European Defense Community to a vote, and granted Tunisia autonomy...
...I am speaking of a single paragraph which would prevent a purely negative majority in Parliament, with no program of its own...
...The resignation of French Premier Maurice Bourges-Maunoury, however, has served to dramatize an increasing tendency to ask: How can one deal with France, for where is her "interlocuteur valable...
...We have had half a dozen men since the war with every personal qualification for success...
...For France is an overcentralized country...
...from Robert Schu-man, who has the expression of a sad-eyed spaniel, to Paul Reynaud, who looks like a Chinese porcelain figurine...
...He lacks the opportunity available to an American President to familiarize himself with the problems of his office...
...One inevitably asks: Why have none of these Premiers, many of them capable men, been able to maintain themselves in power for any length of time...
...Daniel Mayer or Rene Meyer...
Vol. 40 • October 1957 • No. 42
