Gaullists Retain Bare Majority

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 17

Gaullists Retain Bare Majority

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright)

PARIS, March 13.

The Gaullists returned to power in France today with an absolute but slight majority in Parliament after General Elections which had been expected to give them a handsome lead.

It was one of the tensest election counts France has known and, in spite of the final victory, represented a severe set-back to the hopes of the Gaullists who commanded an absolute majority of 48 in the last National Assembly.

The four hundred and eighty-fourth, and third last result to be declared gave the Gaullist Fifth Republic the seat needed for an absolute majority of 244.

After long hours of uncertainty the decisive seat was declared in the first constituency of Guadeloupe, which returned a Gaullist, Paul Valentino, to a seat which was also Gaullist in the old assembly. During the day a group of men raided a Bastia polling station, seized the ballot box and almost succeeded in throwing it into the sea. Officials recovered it from the water’s edge. With 484 out of 486 seats declared, the state of the parties was: Gaullists 244. Communists 72. Left-wing Federation 116. Democratic Centre 27. Independent Conservatives 15. Other Left-wingers 10. The four hundred and eighty-fifth seat, also in Gaudeloupe, went to a Com-

munist and the final seat will be decided on Sunday when French Polynesia votes. About Seven The Gaullists expect in practice to have a virtual majority of about seven—or 250 seats, since they consider they can rely on a number of

the 15 independent conservatives for support. But for the first time in nearly nine years, the Gaullist Government will face strong opposition in Parliament Ministers Lose Mr Maurice Couve de Murville. General de Gaulle's veteran Foreign Minister, who made foreign policy an issue of his campaign, was one of several Cabinet officers brushed aside by the voters. Mr Couve de Murville went down to a veteran conservative, Edouard FredericDupont, who ran for the democratic centre party. Besides Mr Couve de Murville, the Defence Minister, Mr Pierre Messmer, and the Veterans Affairs Minister, Mr Alexander Sanguinetti, were defeated.

While legally they could continue in office, it was widely believed that these defeats would lead General de Gaulle to drop them. By achieving an absolute majority, though by the barest margin, the Gaullists have managed to outflank Senator Lecanuet and his Centre Democratic Party, who had hoped to be in a position to put pressure on the Government in Parliament on its attitudes towards the United States, a united Europe and British membership of the Comornn Market. The left-wing former Prime Minister, Mr Pierre MendesFrance, newly elected in Grenoble, said when the Gaullists secured their majority: “An apparent Government majority in the Assembly cannot hide the fact that it no longer corresponds to a majority in the country.”