Evening star., 1947-10-28
De GouIIe on the Offensive

Though his Rally of the French People
(RPF) won only negligible support In
Sundays voting in the villages and small
towns of France, General de Gaulle's
powerful new position has not been weak
ened any The results, involving local
issues in the main do not detract from the
significance of what happened in the large
cities a week earlier, when he and his
party emerged from the elections as the
strongest single political force In an
ideologically splintered land.
1t is for this reason that General de
Gaulle has not hesitated to call upon the
National Assembly to dissolve itself with
out delay and clear the way for new
nationwide election. He leads from
strong hand. He has staged profoundly
significant comeback on platform whose
chief plank is all-out opposition to the
Communists and revision of the French
constitution to create executive powers
comparable with those of the American
presidency. On this issue he and the
RPF now have far more popular support
than the moderate coalition government
headed by Socialist Premier Ramadier.
In somewhat oversimplif1ed terms, the
position of the Ramadier government in
the changed balance of power may be
described as that of a greatly weakened
middle of -the-road group between two ex-
tremes. The leftist extreme-the Com
munist Party-has been in the picture all
along, with its strength pretty much sta
bilized at about 20 per cent of the popular
vote. The new factor Is the rightist ex-
treme led by General de Gaulle, apparently
with the backing of almost 40 per cent of
the electorate. In such situation, the big
question is whether the Ramadier cabinet
will be able to continue to function effec-
lively and what will happen If 1t cannot.
The first test of this will come Thursday
when the French Parliament will act on
Premier Ramadiers request for a vote of
confidence. Even If he is supported, how
ever, his reshuff1ed coalition government
will find the going difficult. On the one
hand, it will have to face threats of Grip
pling strikes by the Communist-dominate
unions; on the other. with General de
Gaulle now on the political offensive, 1t is
likely to feel mounting pressure for a new
general election. Under the present con-
stitution, such an election cannot be held
until next May but the National Assembly,
by a two-thirds VOTE can remove the
restriction. Certainly. If there is wide
spread labor strife, the government will be
extremely hard put to ignore the De Gaul-
list demands for one.
/ Looked at in any light, the French situa-
ton thus is not merely tense, but explo-
sive. All signs suggest that the day may
be fast approaching when there will be a
new government with General de Gaulle
at its head. He himself may not have the
dictatorial ambitions some have ascribed
to him, but a large segment of his follow
ing undoubtedly is rightist in the extreme,
| and events themselves-such as national
economic paralysis forced by Communist
union leaders in an effort to wreck the
Marshall plan-could lead him to take
authoritarian measures when and IL he
comes to power.
There are those who see in all this the
grim possibility OF civil war. That may be
an exaggeration, but the outlook, in any
| case, is full of fateful potentialities It
raises questions of first Importance not
only as regards Frances future, but as
regards the whole effort of Western Europe
to get back on its feet under the projected
Marshall plan. In that sense 1t Is q
matter of prime concern for America as
we'll.