France Before the Referendum

...Whatever the Moslems' real political desires, ultimately these desires will have to be implemented by the French Government...

...Besides, they had personal experience with the manner in which the demonstrations were organized by the Army, and their experiences did not exactly increase their confidence...

...Thus, this article could lead primarily to an increase in the power of the state bureaucracy —and the head of the state is the same President of the Republic whose powers have been fortified in so many other ways...

...Within the Socialist Parliamentary group, most violent objections were raised to the draft Constitution, but Guy Mollet succeeded in avoiding a clash with the Government...

...It will make it much more difficult to get party leaders into the Government...

...The opponents of the new Constitution do not have a fair chance...

...Nowhere is the gap between these two viewpoints shown more clearly than in the fight over the new Constitution's provision which obliges a Cabinet minister to give up his seat in Parliament...

...He has also established a purely formal obedience to himself in Algiers, but its once-mutinous colonels still make their own policy...

...Many observers feel that France has veered from one extreme to the other, and has not yet found a reasonable middle way: This Constitution will not be the last...

...The Parliamentary session has been drastically cut (to five-and-a-half months) and the field of its legislative competence is decreased...

...The whole scheme of French politics must be revised and reformed: Everyone recognizes this, but how is it to be done...

...but if its members could tolerate one another for the sake of a minimum program, if they could sacrifice toward this goal all the outworn differences that have so long poisoned French politics, then this new party could give the French people an impressive example of political responsibility...

...insofar as it does, it will be a step forward...

...This is apparently a question of the strength of a personality, and legal texts can neither create personalities nor act as their substitutes...

...The French workers, like their counterparts in all the advanced countries, are in the process of becoming petty-bourgeois in their standards and tastes...

...Nevertheless, it is quite clear that the Yesses will prevail...

...Politically, however, it faces some drastic and dangerous decisions...

...On the other hand, it becomes much easier for the President to dissolve Parliament, and he also gets the right—-through a referendum— to appeal to the people over the head of Parliament...

...Nobody believes that, if the Constitution is rejected, de Gaulle would stay in power just to keep the colonels quiet until his successor takes power in an orderly manner...

...What cases of danger did the authors of the draft have in mind...

...It is final also for France as a whole...

...Everyone agrees that France must be reformed—at least that it should get a government with the normal, necessary executive power...

...De Gaulle, whatever one may think of him, is an impressive man, certainly for Frenchmen...

...The basic elements of that Constitution are now fixed, and de Gaulle's visit to the Consultative Committee (set up by Parliament to examine the Constitution) again showed that the French parliamentarians are no match for him...

...Algeria is certainly the most burning of all France's problems, but little is being said about it...

...The complete absence of legal power, or even of personal fame, did not prevent General de Gaulle himself in June 1940 from acting with the pretensions of full power...

...This can only result in their refusal to participate, which means that bureaucrats will get most of the ministerial posts...

...this correspondent didn't think so back in May...

...As for de Gaulle's foreign policy, his plan for a private summit conference was carressed briefly by Khrushchev, then scrapped brusquely after the Soviet Premier's visit to Mao Tse-tung...

...The real contribution that Mendes-France and Mitterand might have made to such a union was their influence among the French middle classes...

...After all, the Parliament of the Fourth Republic did a great deal more for French workers than the Communists admit, but it did not shake the Communist hold on those workers...

...But will the education of the French proletariat ever be possible without smashing the huge demagogic apparatus of the Communist party...

...A large part of the Moslem population will probably vote in the referendum on de Gaulle's Constitution which is scheduled for September 28...

...De Gaulle in his speech to the Consultative Committee gave two examples: the capitulation of 1940, and the mutiny of the Army in Algeria on May 13, 1958...

...These are means of putting pressure on de Gaulle himself, which de Gaulle will certainly reckon with to a certain extent...

...To free them from the trap, propaganda alone is not sufficient, and the traditional propaganda of the democratic Left in France will never be a match for the insidious anti-Parliamentary demagogy of the Communists...

...The Moslems, who had never been as impressed as the foreign press was with the fraternization movement, have developed a new aversion to the colonial system...

...The history of many countries shows that respect for the real dividing line between Government and legislature is a matter not so much of legal rules as of Parliamentary tradition and custom, common sense and political decency...

...From time to time, if a difference of opinion is brought to a head, de Gaulle wins...

...France's situation is far from static...

...they like the state more than the Parliament...

...Economically and socially, it has been moving forward for some time...

...On the other side, 25 per cent of the voters, the majority of the French working class, vote Communist...

...The dynamic power of progressive ideas must be connected with the mass confidence that only Center groups can win in their respective social strata...

...In the social and economic fields, de Gaulle's policy has not gone much beyond an emergency loan to avert a foreign-exchange crisis...

...The great loser in the new Constitution is clearly Parliament, but the Premier and his Cabinet gain only partially...

...And if he goes, the Algiers colonels come...

...but that influence has largely been dissipated in recent years, and their followers now are chiefly intellectuals...

...His prestige will radiate into the Fifth Republic, and work can be done within that frame...

...The French people cannot really say No to the draft Constitution, nor to his policies for Algeria and the other pressing problems...

...But if they began to oppose the Constitution, this would have serious consequences for de Gaulle, and would also run certain risks in the streets...

...Nobody prevented Lebrun then, or Coty in 1958, from doing likewise...

...Those who then distinguished themselves by their will to resist are largely the people who cling most dearly to their old pretensions...

...Thus the campaign for the separation of powers has begun with the confusion of power and right...

...In this situation, even healthy Center parties (one may tranquilly consider the Socialists and the MRP as such) are not adequate...

...It has been made much more difficult to vote down a Government, or even Government proposals...

...Those who have best adapted themselves to the new situation are often the same people who were most compromised in May...

...France would not be powerless against such an invasion...

...This is not to say that the activities of the opposition, as well as constructive criticism of the draft Constitution, will prove worthless...

...Those who have seen the old Palais Bourbon at work can appreciate the bitterness of the medicine that is being administered to French parliamentarians...

...This can only be done by something new and imposing...

...Thus we still face the same problem that vexed Paris last May...

...But a strong social policy is not enough, either...

...If they do participate, they face the danger, if a government falls, of being excluded from Parliament (viz., from the main arena of politics) for the rest of the session...

...Once again, we are faced with the difference between legalism and political realities...

...To many observers, the draft Constitution, which should form the foundation of a new Republic, concentrates rather morbidly on various situations of distress...

...It is, of course, conceivable that the new Constitution will introduce new methods, and thereby create new habits...

...Public apathy assures the ratification of de Gaulle's Constitution France Before the Referendum By Sal Tas Paris Three months have passed since the French Army in Algeria challenged the Fourth Republic...

...These are not votes for Communism...

...There has been a great deal of juridical clamor about "separation of powers" with regard to this article, but it is clear that two practical results are being sought: to increase the distance between the Government and Parliament, and— above all—to put a brake on the chase for ministerial portfolios...

...If the French Parliament wants to ignore this provision, it can always find a way...

...Will the new Constitution bring about a recovery of French political morale...

...Within Algeria, the hysterical demonstrations for "fraternization" of Europeans and Moslems have ended, and the Europeans have returned to their old habits of rule...

...In essence, what it does is to transfer a great deal of power from Parliament to the Government, and quite a bit of power from the Government to the President of the Republic...

...For both, an absolute negative majority is to be required ; in other words, all abstentions count as votes for the Government, which means that its proposals can become law without a real majority...

...De Gaulle, however, thinks that as little as possible should be left to individuals, and as much as possible settled by regulations...

...the workers depend on these bosses to assure their daily petty interests and don't care about other issues or about the broader consequences of their vote...

...The public at large is thoroughly indifferent...

...Neither Yes nor No on the de Gaulle Constitution will, in my opinion, solve the fundamental problem of France, which is the political lethargy of its people...

...they discharge this conflict of conscience by directing all their hate against Parliament...

...Some people, therefore, think that the most important thing to do is to reform the traditions of French politics, to introduce for reinforce) the forms of political decency...

...A great number of Frenchmen are more chauvinistic than they are democratic...

...And this powerful President is neither directly elected by the people nor responsible to the directly-elected National Assembly...

...In Algiers, for instance, the paratroopers organizing the famous "burning of the veils" made use of prostitutes from the Casbah...

...That the 150 Communists elected to the National Assembly obstruct the functioning of the entire system is not the fault of the workers who have elected them but that of the Parliament itself...

...The 5 million Communist votes are votes not only against Parliament, but against every form of politics that goes beyond the daily struggle for bread...

...For this reason, one must be skeptical toward the so-called "efforts of renewal" made by such groups as the Union of Democratic Forces, which unites Daniel Mayer, Andre Philip and other dissident Socialists with Pierre Mendes-France, Francois Mit-terand and various left-wing Radicals...

...And that certain extent is a gain...

...The campaign in favor of the new Constitution has been waged by the Gaullists on the slogan of separation of legislative and executive powers...

...Today, Premier Charles de Gaulle is in control of the French mainland...

...But the General tries as assiduously as do the colonels to avoid such conflicts...

...It is, therefore, understandable that very serious discussion revolved around Article 14 of the draft Constitution, which gives the President most extensive powers in the event of danger to the nation...

...If the advantages of de Gaulle's proposal seem dubious, its disadvantages are clear...

...So long as he is there, it will be very imprudent to fall back on wrong habits...

...But, once he is no longer a minister, he can always get back his seat by manipulations within the party list on which he has been elected...

...De Gaulle asks, consults, considers the opinion of others...

...His love of legality is not that great...

...Nevertheless, separation in theory does not necessarily mean separation in practice...

...And between de Gaulle and the Moslems stands -the French Army in Algeria...

...The opponents of the Constitution have yet to sway the French masses to their viewpoint...

...For if the Constitution or these policies are rejected, de Gaulle goes...

...Similarly last May, President Rene Coty lacked legal power to deal with the Algerian mutiny...

...Even if one includes in the forces to be led by this Union a substantial minority of the Socialist party, it is not big enough to exert really effective political leverage...

...It seems to me that the politicians who proved so susceptible to de Gaulle's charm in the Consultative Committee will not come to such extreme decisions...

...but he decides, and his decision is final in the Government...

...Their noisy opposition collapsed in exactly 40 minutes...

...But many believe that the French parliamentarians would have been forced to adopt a new line of conduct even without a new Constitution, simply because of the presence of de Gaulle as Premier...

...Let no one be fooled: At this point, only a moderately dynamic policy would be tolerated by the French Army, accepted by de Gaulle, and appreciated by the French people...

...The opponents of the Constitution must also say what they would do when the French Army in Algeria, upon the rejection of the Constitution and the departure of de Gaulle, tried an invasion of Metropolitan France...

...And so the workers are stuck in the trap they have built for themselves and from which they obviously cannot free themselves...

...In light of the general political apathy, this would require a powerful campaign which could only be organized (if we except the Communists) by one or more of the major parties now represented in the Government—the Socialists, the Catholic MRP, the conservative Independents...

...The attention of the politicians is, instead, directed toward the draft Constitution...

...What is needed is a mass party, a large formation that can act as the dynamic power of the Fifth Republic...

...Until now, this process has merely reinforced the Communists, for in the rancorous political atmosphere of this country the French worker most readily adopted from the petty-bourgeois his undemocratic tendencies and aversion toward the parliamentary system...

...On the extreme Right, the reactionaries are caught between their admiration for a strong state and their aversion toward state control of the economy...

...They spring from the proletarian clients of the Communist trade-union bosses and the Communist mayors of industrial towns...

...The long-term solution is to enable the French worker to become a healthy petty-bourgeois like his Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian counterparts...

...Such a mass party can only be built by fusing the democratic Left with the Center, or with a piece of it at least...

...Whether these commendable goals will be achieved by the article de Gaulle has proposed remains to be seen...

...In 1940, he argued, President Albert Lebrun had no legal power to act independently of the Parliament which allowed Marshal Petain to arrange the capitulation to Hitler...

...Since then, nothing really new in the political, social or economic fields has been achieved in Algeria— not even a telling gesture...

...In catastrophic situations, it is not the legal text that prevails, but the will to survive...

...In the Netherlands, for example, a Cabinet minister also forfeits his Parliamentary seat...

...De Gaulle needs the support of the major parties to win a big majority in his referendum, and he needs them also to keep at a distance the new army of jobhunters who swim hungrily in the wake of de Gaulle's flagship...

...De Gaulle is convinced that this is France's -central malady, and, moreover, that it can be cured by a new constitution...

...Dignity does not exclude adroitness...

...How does his draft compare with the Constitution of the Fourth Republic...

...De Gaulle himself does not, but he lets others do so, just as he has allowed the Government radio to become a tool in the hands of a group of former members of the old Gaullist party...

...The choice is not between Yes and No, but between Yes and a military pronunciamento...

...But did it have to be so bitter...

...To amass sufficient influence, a new progressive party must at least include the overwhelming mass of the Socialists and a majority of the MRP...

...In such a party, everybody would not necessarily agree with everybody else...

...The real winner is the President of the Republic...

...In Britain, on the other hand, there is an intimate connection between the Government and the House of Commons...

...The Gaullists constantly use this threat...

...But there is no reason to believe that the politicians who lacked the courage to oppose the Army in May will have that courage in October...

...In that sense, the new situation has possibilities...

...Besides, it is not enough to say No to the Constitution...

...Considering the silent but effective manner in which the French press has censored itself since the menacing Jacques Soustelle became Minister of Information, one cannot be too pessimistic about the fighting spirit of the opposition...

...That is another question...

...But that has neither corroded the executive power of the Government nor stimulated petty deals over Cabinet seats...

...But the value of their votes is dubious, as the Moslems will doubtless be handled by the Army in the same manner at the referendum as they were in the fraternization meetings...