BIG TRIUMPH FOR BE GAULLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21852, 24 October 1945, Page 5

BIG TRIUMPH FOR BE GAULLE

FRENCH ELECTIONS RETURN REPUBLICANS’ GAINS THREE EQUAL PARTIES (Special Correspondent.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 23. The result of the French election is regarded here as a personal triumph for General de Gaulle, since he received overwhelming’ support for his appeal for a single-Chamber Constituent Assembly to draft the new constitution and his proposal that the new Assembly’s powers should be defined in advance and so, to some extent, limited. The strength of the various parties is such that General de Gaulle is assured of election as head of the Government and that, on November 6, when he formally returns his powers to the representatives of the people, he will be asked to take up the new high trust he assumed in 1940. The life of the new Assembly, which will meet on November 6, will be limited to seven months while the new constitution is being drafted, so that France will go to the polls again in about 8J months. Next, after the vote of confidence in General de Gaulle, the election is seen as expressing the clearest wish for a break* with the past. This explains the defeat of the Radical Socialists,, who stood for maintaining the constitution of 1879. Catholic Party’s Success

The third outstanding feature, is regarded as the success of M. Bidault's party, the Movement Republican Populate (Popular Republican Movement), which was born only a year ago. Described as a new and unusual party, it is largely Catholic, deriving its inspiration from the resistance movement. It champions major social and economic changes. Many women who voted for the first time rallied to it, in addition to Conservatives and members of the Right who realised the futility of their own traditional parties.

Founded last winter, the party began as an offshoot of a resistance organisation known as the Republican Liberation Movement. The success of the M.R.P. was a surprise. It had been violently attacked by the Communists, who alleged that its official programme is a hypocritical facade covering clerical reaction and ill-disguised Petainism with General de Gaulle, in their failure to bring off a sweeping swing to the Left, for which they worked and expected, and although they, were the first party in the State, their failure is regarded as marked. The reason, it is said, be that rightly or wrongly, they remain under suspicion of being a foreign rather than a French party, to which France, in her present mood, is unlikely to grant full power. Socialists Hold Ground The Socialists are regarded as having held their own and will continue to attract middle-class support, though not in sufficient numbers to offset the loss of the working class votes to the Communists. Nevertheless, the Socialists are regarded as holding a key position in the Assembly and are being marked out for a cardinal part in the future of France. All three parties have as a common ground an official programme for the nationalisation of the principal industries and credit institutions, which is on a parallel to the British-Labour Party’s policy. It is the first time that almost the whole French Parliament has been split into roughly three equal parties., and it is recognised as a hopeful evolution that France seems at last to .be moving towards the two-party or three-party system, which will give stability and substance to whatever Parliamentary regime is devised when the new members begin drafting the constitution of the Fourth Republic. Thirty women have been returned — 10 Communists, seven M.R.F., five Socialists and two Rightists.