FRANCE VEERS LEFTWARD
Clair, Louis
France Veers Leftward 3/ LOUIS CLAIR THE results of the French cantonal elections—a sort, of overture for the national elections to take place Oct. 21—show a Socialist success and a general trend,...
...The -ie-tory of the British Labor Party and the emergent of strong Socialist Parties in other .European countries may have given French Socialists some much needed encouragement...
...de Gaulle...
...The latter, in turn, because of their fear of the Communist Party, have been moving more and more closely toward de Gaulle so that they have become almost a governmental party...
...furthermore, issues of personalities are bound to have a much larger importance in local than in national contests...
...The general trend is definitely away from "free enterprise" and toward some sort of planned economy...
...The Communists hold 326 against their pre-war 72, but seem not to have gained since the municipal elections this Spring...
...Of a total of around 3,000 seats, the Socialists won more than 800...
...Since it is not to be expected that the Socialists, who will most probably emerge as the strongest party, will attain anything approaching the majority, the coming government will probably be based on an alliance between the Socialists and the Christian Democrats around Gen...
...The Communists and the Radicals oppose the formula proposed by'de Gaulle—though for opposite reasons...
...IT is difficult to predict on the basis of these results the outcome of the national elections later this month...
...Yet it is difficult to see how the militarist and imperialist policy of General de Gaulle can in the long run be made palatable to the rank and file of the Socialist Party, who claim that the alliance with de Gaulle can only drive the majority of the working class into the arms of the Communist demagogues...
...French politics have never been too easy to untangle, but today's situation is indeed a political labyrinthe...
...de Gaulle—-emerged as the fifth strongest party with 269 seats...
...In many districts only about half of the electors bothered to go to the polls...
...The Radical-Socialists likewise have lost much of their prestige since they are associated in the public mind with all the faults and shortcomings of the Third Republic...
...On the other hand, the Socialists and the Christian Democrats support General de Gaulle's formula of a Constituent Assembly with limited powers...
...The whole Left, from the Christian Democrats to the Communist Party, stands for a program of planned economy, and yet it is in no way united^-on the contrary...
...have lost any votes to the Communists...
...21—show a Socialist success and a general trend, toward the Left...
...A democratic Socialist France allied to Britain could form the nucleus of a democratic and progressive .Western European Federation...
...Each party seems to have attracted votes from the party immediately to its right, with the significant exception that the Socialists seem not to...
...There were 32 parties or groups on the ballots and local alliances often made for strongly assorted tickets...
...Thus the traditional parties of the old Popular Front are divided on the issue of the coming constitutional referendum...
...The newly, established ChristianrDemoeratic Party of liberal Catholics—in many respects closest to Gen...
...seems that in France today there are only two power centers: De Gaulle and the Communists...
...Indeed, the strangest alliances are now being formed: The Radicals have joined the Communists in an out-and-out attack against the government's electoral projects, although the Radicals stand for a return to the constitution of the Third Republic while the Communists are its most determined adversaries and clamor ' for a Constituent Assembly with unlimited powers...
...The Communists are clamoring for a "Unified Workers Party," but the Socialists have given these proposals an extremely cool reception...
...They retain only 607 of their pre-war 962 seats...
...The Socialists, in spite of their electoral strength, have so far not been able ,to elaborate an independent policy...
...All rightist parties-lost very heavily...
...The Right has lost much of its old influence because most collaborationists and Vichyites came from its ranks...
...But her political future will denend to no small degree on whether French Socialists will !>e able to steer an independent course between Ger ie Gaulle and Moscow-controlled Communists...
...Thus General de Gaulle hopes to be able to control a stable maiority of Socialists and Christian Democrats with the Communist minority on the Left and a minority of Radicals and Rightists on the Right...
...The Radical-Socialists (who are neither radical nor socialist), wider Herriot and Daladier long the dominant party of France, have lost heavily...
...FRANCE will move further and further away from free enterprise and toward some sort of planned and controlled economy...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 41
