FRENCH ELECTION RESULTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25031, 13 November 1946, Page 7

FRENCH ELECTION RESULTS

British Newspaper Comment

FORM OF FUTURE GOVERNMENT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.15 pjn.) LONDON. Nov. 12. Even if the Communists emerge trom the French elections as the largest single party in the new Assembly i-i 4 results are still to come in) it may be two months before France Knows whether it will have a Communist Premier and what sort of Cabinet he will form, says the “Daily Heralds” Paris correspondent. This is because the Chamber was elected under the new Constitution, which provides for an Upper House, namely the council of the Republic, and the first step in the election of the Council will not be taken until next month. Even then, the correspondent points out, no step can constitutionally be taken toward forming a new Government until the two Houses have met together and chosen a President of the Republic who will nominate the Premier, who must obtain a vote of confidence on his appointment and programme before forming his Government.

According to expert political opinion in Paris the chances of establishing a stable government in France are slim, says the Paris correspondent of the British United Press. Some form of coalition is thought unavoidable, since none of the parties possesses anything like a clear majority. The Assembly is expected to split with the Communists and Socialists on one side and the M.R.P. and Right Wing parties on the other. Mr Edouard Herriot’s Radicals would then hold the balance of power. The correspondent adds that the radicals may join the Communists and Socialists in a revival of the 1936 “Popular Front” under Communist leadership. On the other hand they could join a coalition of Right Wing 1 parties under the leadership of Mr Bidault.

The greatest lesson of the French elections is the failure of the centre parties—the Socialists and the M.R.P. —says the Paris correspondent of “The Times.” Moderate opinion moved to the Right which was a triumph for General de Gaulle. The M.R.P. lost half a million votes to the P.R.L. and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the M.R.P. will be driven to the Right, just as the Socialists may well be driven to the Left.

The Parliamentary correspondent of “The Times” expresses the opinion that if there is a danger of a breach in the prevailing form of democracy in France, it is unlikely to come from the Communists but from the Rightists, unable to reconcile themselves, and seeing power slipping peacefully info the hands of the Leftists.

The “Daily Mail” in a leading article says the French Socialists are being ground to nothing in the conflict between Right and Left, just as they were in Lenin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The fate of Social Democracy in Europe is matched by that of the Liberals in Britain. The newspaper expresses the opinion that there seems no room for middle-of-the-way convictions. Returns are still trickling in slowly from the colonies and it will be two or three days before most of the results are known. The Ministry of the Interior Office was closed yesterday for Armistice Day, but the latest unofficial counts are: Communists .. 170 M.R.P. (Moderate Catholic Democratic Group) .. 161 Socialists .. 96 P.R.L. (Conservatives) .. 73 Radicals .. .. 59 * De Gaullists 9 Algerian Independence Party ~ 7 Algerian Party “for the Triumph of Democratic Liberty” .. 5