Municipal Elections In France- De Gaulle Maintains Strong Position

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 October 1948, Page 5

Municipal Elections In FranceDe Gaulle Maintains Strong Position

(Recd. 1 p.m.) PARIS, October 17. General de Gaulle’s Rally of the French People’s Party today gained victory in the municipal elections. The result is expected to strengthen the de Gaullists’ position in the Council of the Republic (the French Upper House). The elections were for 26 municipal councils, which will nominate delegates to vote for the Council of the Republic on November 7. Today’s election gave 594 delegates to the Rally of the French People. The Communist Party came second with 454 delegates, and the Socialists third with 220, the Catholic Popular Republican (M.R.P.) fourth withJso, the Radical Socialists and various Independents 99.

In Paris General de Gaulle will have 307 delegates, the Communists 153, the Socialists 35, the M.R.P. 29 and Independents 5. In Marseilles the de Gaullists have 95 delegates, while the Communists are close with 90. No incidents were reported. The Paris results and those of 3000 odd towns with over 3500 inhabitants are not particularly significant. The results virtually correspond to those obtained at the municipal elections a year ago, when the de Gaullists obtained 37 per cent, of the total vote, the Communists 27 per cent, and the Centre parties 18 per cent., with the rest going to local interest groups.