FRENCH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25321, 22 October 1947, Page 7

FRENCH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

38.4 Per Cent, of Votes To de Gaullists LEADER’S AIM TO REGAIN NATIONAL POWER CN;Z. Press Association—-Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, October 2L “The latest analysis of voting in the French municipal elections shows that General de Gaulle’s party has obtained 38.4 per cent, of the votes,” says the Paris correspondent of “The Times.” “The Communists have obtained 30.6 per cenL, the Socialists 19.3 per cent., the M.R.P. 9.3 per cent., and the various other parties 2.4 per cent. “General de Gaulle has succeeded in “polarising’ French opinion round one simple straightforward issue, and on that issue the verdict is in his favour. “Those in touch with political life in the provinces are convinced that in most towns and villages where a second ballot will be necessary, Socialist candidates in most cases will join those opposed to the Communists, and that if they do not their voters will abandon them. “General de Gaulle aims at securing power, and he will regard the result of the elections as a mandate from a good part of the electorate to do so. He will claim that he has the support of what is left of the M.R.P., its voters, and even ita leaders. “He considers that the abstainers are on his side rather than on the Communists’, and that when he forces the issue ‘according to his mandate,’ a few of the Socialist Party’s leaders will join him with about two-thirds of its voting strength.”

The correspondent adds: “The question arises: how can this weight of favourable opinion be harnessed to the task of bringing General de Gaulle to power? His supporters and he himself have frequently asserted their determination to respect the law, and the whole of General de Gaulle’s career suggests that this is his constant preoccupation. “Mr Malraux, the writer, who is head of General de Gaulle’s propaganda department, said yesterday that even if General de Gaulle were offered the Premiership by the President of the Republic and with the approval of a Parliamentary majority and of workers’ organisations, he would not take it without a referendum and a direct mandate from the people. “Those round General de Gaulle expect first a regrouping of deputies with the emergence of a de Gaulle group. This might not occur at once. At a late - stage, probably after an intensification of labour difficulties. General de Gaulle would be called on to form a Government. “His first step would be to secure the constitutional alterations which he considers necessary, among which is the right of dissolution when there is a change of Government. This consti-

tutional change would almost certainly (though not quite necessarily) involve a referendum, and the elections which would follow would be designed to give General de Gaulle the popular mandate he requires. “General de Gaulle’s success hai come sooner than was expected or. indeed. wanted. It is generally agreed that he cannot afford to keep his supporters waiting, but that the time is not quite ripe for the development* described. “The Communist Party will do it* best to oppose them and no doubt to prevent General de Gaulle from .ever taking power without some degree of illegality. “France and its Government face an anxious and disturbing future.” The French Communist Parly, in a declaration claiming that the party received more than 30 per cent, of the votes in the decisive centres of the country, says that the Communistsand Socialist parties represent between them more than half of the electorate. If they were united they would group all Republicans round them and could play an important role in the orientation of French politics. The declaration calls for unity against General de Gaulle’s party.