France: One for De Gaulle

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In perhaps the most crucial test in the eight-year history of Charles de Gaulle's Fifth Republic, Gaullism was victorious last week, clearly leading the field in the national elections. In this week's runoff elections for the 404 seats for which no one had won a majority in the first round of balloting, the question was merely how large a majority the Gaullists would have in the new National Assembly. That depended on how badly they scared the voters with warnings about the Communists, who had not only retained their position as France's second largest party but also picked up 1,000,000 new votes.

The Gaullists took to state-owned television to rally as many voters as possible to their side by painting the entire left of center a bright Red. "All those responsible for our misfortunes, for our weaknesses are still here," said Premier Georges Pompidou. "France must say no to the Communist Party. Then for long years the future will be assured." De Gaulle himself said: "What is at stake is the republic and liberty."

De Gaulle has largely himself to blame for the Communist resurgence: his fervent courting of Communist countries and his criticism of U.S. policies have given a new respectability to France's Communists. To that they added new power by forming an electoral pact with François Mitterrand's Federation of Democratic Socialists, the third largest party. Under the pact, the candidate, either Communist or Socialist, who had more votes in the first election or stood the better chance of beating the Gaullist man became the candidate of both leftist parties in the runoff. Accordingly, the Communists withdrew their candidates in 159 districts, while Mitterrand's people withdrew in 124. Few observers expected the alliance of the left to last past the election.