FRANCE: Assembly Again

The French Constitution of 1946 gave almost all executive as well as legislative powers to the National Assembly. Since then it has been almost impossible for a French government to do anything without the Assembly. On the other hand, the failure of French parties to unite against Communism has made it almost impossible to do anything important with the Assembly. For four years France has found no way out of the dilemma.

Premier René Pleven’s cabinet of Socialists, Popular Republicans, other center and moderate right parties, formed last July, shooed off the Assembly for a pro longed vacation. Then Pleven announced a forceful program. He wanted to increase compulsory military service from 12 to 18 months, to double the military budget, to outlaw Communist spies and saboteurs, etc. But to translate all this into action, he still needed the Assembly. Last week the legislators came back to Paris. Pleven’s cabinet immediately found itself teetering. Its survival was threatened by four issues:

¶ The setback in Indo-China gave the Communists and fellow travelers a chance to howl for an end of the war and a negotiated peace with Viet Minh Boss Ho Chi Minh (see WAR IN ASIA).

¶ German rearmament had split Pleven’s ministers. The Socialists were dragging their feet over the issue. One of their spokesmen, Defense Minister Jules Moch, was opposed to the U.S. plan for quick recruitment of a Germany army. “I will be the minister of French rearmament, not of German rearmament,” he said stubbornly. A hectoring Communist communiqué from Prague (see INTERNATIONAL), demanding a halt to German rearmament, sent some Socialists into a flutter; they saw “another Korea on our doorstep.”

¶ French rearmament had the backing of all important parties except the Communists. But financing it, even with a whopping U.S. handout (see INTERNATIONAL), made fiscal changes imperative. New taxes seemed necessary, including heavier, more equitably distributed levies on corporations and farmers. With parliamentary elections a few months off, the Assembly balked in political fright.

¶ Pleven was pushing electoral reform. In place of proportional representation, a clumsy failure because it encourages multiple-party paralysis, the Premier proposed a “système majoritaire,” which would build up a few strong parties at the expense of the weakest. Pleven was determined to fight for this program, even if it meant his downfall.

One of the beneficiaries of a système majoritaire would be Charles de Gaulle’s RPF (Rally of the People of France). Last week at a fervent national council of his party in Paris, complete with the Cross of Lorraine, the V-for-victory sign of World War II, and chants of “De Gaulle to power!”, the general proclaimed: “Once again, we shall be called in at moins cinq”—(meaning “five minutes of,” the French equivalent of “the eleventh hour”). The Gaullists still believed themselves to be the wave of the future. Some of their former cronies among the Popular Republicans, like ex-Premier Georges Bidault, were in favor of an alliance with the RPF. Only then, they argued, would French politics achieve a solid anti-Communist front and a government of decision.