Evening star., 1951-06-19
frances Election

support than any other one party In France the
Communists have lost considerable ground IN
that country AS result of Sundays election
their seats in the National Assembly have been
cut down, according to the latest count, from
1873 to about los. Moreover, the nearly complete
returns show that they have suffered decline
of over percentage points in terms of the total
number of ballots cast this time having won
224 per cent of those ballots as against 286
In 1916
This decrease in Communist strength
decrease made possible in large part by new
electoral law ending proportional representation
and permitting the center parties to make pre-
election coalition "deaS"-addS up to heartening
news as far as it goes. What 1t means, for one
thing is that the Reds, having lost scores OF
seats, will And it good deal more difficult to
create parliamentary confusion by themselves.
1t proves also that a substantial part of their
past support has deserted them despite their
vicious. all-out propaganda campaign vilifying
the Atlantic Pact and libeling every opposition
party as warmongering lackey of the United
States ready to plunge France into the abyss.
Yet the results of the French election do not
by any means justify unalloyed rejoicing. Wholly
apart from the fact that 1t is SOLDERING to realize
that the Communists still are able to attract as
much as 224 per cent of the country's voters,
little nothing to Frances governing stability.
Thus, although the extreme Red left has declined
In power, it continues strong enough to be very
much reckoned with, and the extreme right-as
represented by General de Gaulle's new party
has emerged with the second largest share of the
popular vote (about 10 per cent? and with some
thing like 110 seats, the biggest single bloc in
the Assembly. In between, with varying degrees
of support, stand the Socialists, the Popular
Republicans, the Radicals and other center
parties of the so-called Third Force" 1t is true
that these middle Of the-road parties taken to-
gether and acting in coalition, command ma
jority upwards of 383 out of a total of 627
Seats) suf1ciently large for parliamentary con-
troll The trouble is, however, that they have fire.
quently fallen out in the past and are likely
to do so again.
In other words harried by both the extreme
right and the extreme left, and with their own
internal differences to cope with, the center
parties seem to be pretty much where they were
prior to Sundays election They have all the
power they need to govern by coalition, but be-
cause OF the extremist opposition and the clash
ing interests within themselves they cannot
guarantee the durability of any cabinet they
create. OF course, by voting for the De Gaullists
and the Third Force" and by reducing the Com
muntsts' former support, the French people have
indicated that they have grown more conserva-
tive rather than less but they still have poli.-
ical situation in which, as in the past it appears
likely that they will see frequent rise and fall
OF governments in Paris instead of a steady
stable five-year administration.
Frances multiplicity of parties is primarily
responsible for this prospect Until those parties
are reduced in number to sum like that pre-
valing in Britain or the United States the coali-
ff0so L..
recurrent cabinet crises Many Frenchmen in
sst that the instability of their system has been
grossly exaggerated, but the fact remains that
when the life of government is uncertain from
one month to the next that government cannot
act with the kind OF speed, vigor, authority and
continuity that the Western world sorely needs
in these days of great danger. To that extent,
though encouraging in several respects, Sundays
election has resulted in something less than an
unadulterated victory for France and the At
lantic community as whole.