Evening star., 1947-10-21
The Meaning Of De GouIIe


de Gaulle and his hackers in the municipal
elections Is partly personal and partly
theological. That large sections of the
French people remember his heroic part
in the resistance" to German conquest
and regard him as a potential savior from
the present threat Of Communist domina-
ton is uncontestable. But this personal
factor was enhanced by the widespread
revulsion against communism which was
bound to express itself politically in some
way and which polarized itself around De
Gaulle as symbol as we'll as personality
Both factors account for the meteoric rise
OF his "Rassemblement du Peuple francais," !"
or Rally Of the French People" Launched
only last April, it appears to have captured
some 40 per cent of a vote approximating
25,000,000 and to have thereby become the
largest grouping in the French political
scene.
It should be emphasized that, as De
Gaulle himself has stressed 1t, the RPF,
as it is abbreviatedly called, is movement
rather than party. This is shown by the
way the Radicals, who despite their name
are moderate conservatives, made COM
mon cause with De Gaulle while retaining
their party organization. De Gaulle has
urged patriotic Frenchmen of all parties to
rally around his banner to meet the cur
rent emergency, not merely to stop the
Communists, but also to reform the con-
St1tutlon so as to give France a strong
executive capable OF meeting all phases of
national crisis which is economic and
moral as we'll as political in character.
That the answer to his appeal was wide
spread is shown by the relatively uniform
response throughout the country. It had
been expected that the RPF would draw
heavily from all parties except the extreme
left. But the surprising showing of the
RPF in Leftist strongholds, like the work.
ing-class environs of Paris, indicates that
many workers must have disregarded the
injunctions of Socialist and Communist
labor bosses in the privacy of the polling
booth. It Is true that the Communists
held their own, while the Socialists made
slight gains, but that does not necessarily
mean that the voters were identical with
those of previous elections. It is possible
that Leftists' warnings against the Man
oAA 4AoA oAoCDdCA, aDOOU W111CII uldlly
men are proverbially touchy, led some
voters to support Leftist candidates even
though not ideologically leftist themselves.
The big losers in the election are the
Popular Republicans or MRP Their vote
shrank by nearly wo-thirds from the pre-
vious parliamentary elections, reducing
their showing to barely 10 per cent of the
total. This produces curious political
situation. Technically, this municipal elec-
tion makes no difference in the par
liamentary lineup. But practically the
rise of movement not reflected in the
existing legislature must have powerful
repercussions. To a large extent, the
MRP, which dominates the present gov
ernment, is left psychologically "up in the
air" It cannot make any compromise
with the Communists, to whom it is reso-
lutely opposed, while its present under
standing with the Socialists is weakened,
since the latter are bitterly antagonistic
to De Gaulle. The most probable result
will be some accommodation with the
RPF, especially its moderate supporters
such as the Radicals. The upshot might
be temporarily maneuver traditionally
known In French politics as Republican