FRENCH ELECTIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 108, 7 April 1936, Page 9

FRENCH ELECTIONS

AN OBSCURE CONTEST. i. EFFECT OF WORLD EVENTS. DEMOCRACY OR FASCISM.’ (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 7, 10.25 a.m. LONDON, April 5. The Sun-Herald Service says the general election campaign in France opens to-day. The first ballot occurs on April 24 and the second on May 3. A total of 2730 candidates have been nominated for 615 seats. The majority of the candidates disappear after the first ballot, when the four main parties remain—the Communists, Socialists, Radical Socialists, Croix De Feu, and other Nationalists. The contest is more obscure than for many years. Internal politics are still of first importance, but foreign affairs have recently so monopolised the public’s attention that the preliminaries and the party have lost much of their meaning. The Left and Right, which were clearly divided in November on such questions as the future of Parliamentary government, economic and financial policy, and social legislation, are now confronted by the single issue of Democracy versus Fascism, which has been transplanted from internal to foreign fields. HenHitler’s violation of Locarno has enabled the Left to steal the Right’s thunder, because the question is not only the defence of France against Germany, but the defence of the democratic system against autocracy,