Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-04

All ElcCI1IlS new NdLlOUdl Az
sembly, the French people have once
again demonstrated that their country
Is too politically splintered to be capable
OF organizing reasonably stable and
long-lived government.
This is in keeping with predictions
made prior to Mondays vote. The only
thing surprising about the results is that
the extremists on the left and right have
gained even more than they themselves
seem to have expected. And the rela-
lively moderate parties have lost ground
correspondingly-a fact that virtually
guarantees lot of parliamentary paraly-
sis in Paris and another depressing series
Of in-and-out Premiers and cabinets.
Back in 1851, when they last ran for
the Assembly, the in-between parties
campaigned as temporary allies against
the Reds and other extremists and as a
result, under Frances electoral law, the
latter suffered big losses. But this time,
largely because Of the split among the
adical-Socialists and the bitter personal
feud between Premier Faure and former
Premier MendesFrance, the Communists
have had the pleasure of running against
a fragmented opposition at war with
itself. Accordingly, even though they
have won smaller share of the vote than
they did in 1851, they have acquired up
ward Of so additional parliamentary
seats, or about 20 more than the gain
foreseen for them in prediction pre-
dictionS.
And by the same TOKEN at the other
extreme, Mondays returns have given a
startling number OF seats (49, according
to the latest county to a strange new
party headed by flre-breathing rabble-
rouser named Pierre Poujade. This
party, which has supplanted the De
Gaullists on the far right seems to be
compounded of Fascist elements and the
lunatic fringe, and its bloc Of parlia-
mentary votes, taken together with the
approximately $50 controlled by the Com
munists, threatens to act as a constant
obstruction. True, when combined, the
"right-center" and "left-center" parties
guided by men like Messrs. Faure and
MendeS-France command a solid ma
iority in the Assembly, but they are SO
faction ridden and divided that any
likely to have only a short lease on life.
Certainly, in view of Mondays re-
suits, 1t is difficult to see anything in
prospect but continuation, perhaps in
an even worse form, of Frances postwar
history of rising and falling Premiers and
cabinets. BaSically, what the country
seems to need most of all Is much less
Splintered thinking In the ranks Of It's
electorate. The French people, in other
words, must themselves undergo a kind
OF mental revolution If they are ever to
undertake the constitutional and other
reforms required to cut down on their
multiplicity Of parties and give them an
effective government whose existence
they can be sure of for more than one
day to the next.
To ask the highly individualistic
French for such revolution may be
comparable to asking for the moon, but
until there is something very much like
it, their country will continue to decline
in prestige and strength at home and
abroad This is a matter In which their
friends and allies have legitimate in
terest and a right to speak out. After
ALL as long as they do nothing about
their ailing political system, they are
hurting not only themselves but the rest
of the free world as we'll.