UN General Assembly
1955

72. Reference has been made to the possibility of a gradual re-establishment of unity through the development of contacts between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Germany. I am afraid that this theory of two Germanys is likely to lead us into a deadlock. The French Government, for its part, knows of only one elected government in Germany, that is, the Government of the Federal Republic. It is impossible to place a lawful government and de facto authorities on the same footing. Moreover, the Soviet formula comes up against certain practical obstacles. German unity cannot materialize, as some speakers have said again and again, from mechanical and automatic measures; yet it is precisely the bald juxtaposition of two diametrically opposed systems that constitutes the most mechanical, the most automatic and the least feasible or measures. In this case, as in others, the law of democracy must be observed; in other words, genuinely free elections must be held throughout the territory.