Cabinet Crisis in France
BOSWELL, GEORGE B.
Cabinet Crisis in France The deep divisions on the conduct of the Algerian war make it difficult for the non-Communist groups in the Assembly to form a stable government By George B....
...When, on the day Gaillard fell, a right-wing leader named Biaggi called for the storming of the U.S...
...The various governments since 1956 have contributed, by censorship and by nationalistic propaganda, to the fact that the general public is not at all prepared for any kind of compromise settlement...
...Embassy, he could recruit only 20 men for the job...
...About the only workable solution would seem to be another minority government (like that of Mollet), built around the MRP and Socialist parties and including the more liberal factions of the Radicals...
...President Eisenhower's letter to Gaillard struck many rightist deputies as outlandish foreign interference in French internal affairs, especially since it placed Gaillard in the situation of having changed his position (on international control of the Tunisian border) as a result of it...
...The new government will also have to cope immediately with the threat of major strikes in the nationalized industries (gas, electricity, coal mines, railroads...
...Thus, the Right cannot possibly have its way in the Assembly, and the Government that ultimately succeeds Gaillard's will pursue policies similar to those in force ever since 1956—prosecution of the war with limited means, combined with a hesitant search for a new political status for Algeria that does not imply independence...
...French popular reactions to Tunisia's aid to the FLN have been relatively mild...
...Some Independents also feared losing votes to extreme rightists if they were identified with making concessions to Bourguiba...
...Furthermore, the U.S...
...Both of those groups voted against Gaillard, though for opposite reasons...
...Whether such leadership can now emerge on the national level, in view of the present state of the Algerian war, is quite another matter...
...The government of Felix Gail-lard was overthrown—precipitating what may be a very long Cabinet crisis—because it had accepted the terms proposed by the Anglo-American "good-offices" mission for the renewal of diplomatic negotiations with Tunisia...
...In this case, some 20 members of the Independent party of Antoine Pinay, who had previously supported Gaillard, overthrew him by joining with about 100 other right-wingers and with the Communists...
...Several weeks of crisis will help reinforce the intransigence of the Algerian rebels, and Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba will be under even greater pressure to move closer to Cairo...
...While the Assembly struggles to form some kind of regime, the situation remains explosive...
...The conservative fear of extremists is a real one, for, with the aid of powerful interests in Algeria, a kind of McCarthy ism has been created around the Algerian issue...
...These rightists call for an all-out military effort against the FLN, coupled with a forceful diplomacy aimed at preventing Tunisia and Morocco from supporting the rebels...
...But Gaillard, like his predecessors Maurice Bourges-Mau-noury and Guy Mollet, fell basically because he had lost the confidence of the right wing on the Algerian question...
...Though Bidault was one of the outstanding heroes of the Resistance and is one of the most respected leaders of the MRP, the party would not accept his nationalist platform for Algeria...
...The right wing feels that the Anglo-American mission, composed of State Department veteran Robert Murphy and Britain's Harold Beeley, was promoting concessions to Tunisia that would inevitably pave the way for other concessions to the leaders of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN...
...With such a thin majority, it is hard to envision a government strong enough to propose any solution remotely acceptable to the FLN...
...Nevertheless, within the Assembly, a silent and gradual evolution is taking place...
...In any case, as far as Tunisia is concerned, the new government will have to take up where Gaillard left off—with the Murphy-Beeley proposals—and the likelihood is that the Independents will have to give the new Premier what they refused to Gaillard...
...Why, then, did they overthrow him...
...Another "across-the-board" government like Gaillard's, embracing everyone from Socialists to Independents, seems unlikely after Gaillard's experience...
...Yet, there are not more than about 120 deputies in the National Assembly who are fully resolved to assume all the consequences such a "get-tough" policy would entail—including placing the French economy on a war footing and braving UN and great-power intervention by a "preventive attack" on Tunisia...
...Yet, the next government will be in a weaker position to pursue these policies...
...The leadership of the Socialist party, for example, has begun to lose its enthusiasm for the hard policies pursued by Robert Lacoste, the Socialist who has been Minister for Algeria for the last two years...
...Cabinet Crisis in France The deep divisions on the conduct of the Algerian war make it difficult for the non-Communist groups in the Assembly to form a stable government By George B. Bosivell Paris The Algerian war continues to dominate the French political scene...
...For the Sakhiet incident which brought about the present conflict between France and Tunisia also brought about what most French politicians feared most: internationalization of the North African issue through the Anglo-American "good-offices" mission...
...Gaillard also offended Pinay and some of his followers by addressing them as if they were children, which was ill-considered in a man young enough to be Pinay's son...
...It is hard to find a rational explanation for their behavior, which was essentially emotional...
...Supplied with ample funds, these extremists denounce as traitors to the nation those Socialist, Catholic and Radical liberals who do not support the policy of total war against the rebels...
...This, however, is a most delicate problem, for Lacoste has, in effect, served as the guarantee to the conservatives that the Socialists would pursue a nationalist course in Algeria...
...Meanwhile, such leaders of the Catholic MRP as Pierre Pflimlin and Robert Schuman have also become increasingly aware of the necessity for a new course designed to end the war while salvaging French interests in Algeria...
...While doing so, however, it must be quite careful not to interfere overtly, lest the repercussions of such intervention prove worse for the Atlantic alliance than the Algerian war itself...
...A most difficult endeavor...
...The United States, it would appear, is slowly moving toward a policy of maneuvering France and the FLN toward a negotiated settlement...
...loan to France granted in December has not checked inflation, and France's balance-of-payments deficit is barely staying within the budgetary limit established at the time of the loan...
...Since the MRP will not participate in any government which does not include the Socialists, a Center-Right government is also out...
...For, although some leaders of the Center and Left are evolving in the direction of a more liberal solution, they can command at best only half the Assembly—without Communist support, which they rule out...
...Against the roughly 300 Socialists, Catholics and Radicals of various factions there would stand more than 150 Independent and extreme rightist votes, plus 125-odd Communists...
...The MRP's repudiation of Georges Bidault's recent bid for the Premiership illustrates the change in attitude...
...Against this pattern of plot, intrigue and governmental instability, one must nevertheless stress the amazing 1 stability of French society...
...What, then, will come out of the present Cabinet crisis...
...these had already been called but were put off when Gaillard fell, since the unions no longer had any responsible authority against which to strike...
...Although Socialist leader Guy Mollet cannot repudiate Lacoste publicly, he would doubtless welcome the opportunity to replace him if this can be done gracefully...
...The turbulent extremists amply financed by the Algerian colons could exploit some incident, either in France or on the Algerian-Tunisian border, and there is good reason to believe that they would be supported by certain Army elements...
...The conduct of the French troops under General Gambiez who have been confined to quarters in Tunisia for the last two-and-a-half months indicates that, given proper leadership, the French can remain calm in the face of great adversity...
...Faced by the possibility of a defeat far more serious than the loss of Indo-China, Tunisia, Morocco or the Saar, the French might well accept the leadership of a nationalist extremist...
...The Government crisis has not caused the slightest ripple in Paris traffic...
...For there is no longer any possible solution to the Algerian conflict that would not imply heavy territorial losses as well as a serious loss of French prestige...
...It is much too early, however, to expect major changes in French policy...
...It would, however, need the support of some of the more moderate Independents as well as the faction of the Radicals led by Pierre Mendes-France...
Vol. 41 • May 1958 • No. 18
