FRENCH SHOW LITTLE INTEREST IN ELECTIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 November 1946, Page 5

FRENCH SHOW LITTLE INTEREST IN ELECTIONS

(Special N.Z.P.A.) Recd. 6 p.m. London, Nov. 7. Reports from France indicate that the French electorate Is approaching Sunday’s election for a new National Assembly inan apathetic and cynical mood. The main issues are reconstruction of French finances, the food position and foreign affairs. These are all matters of vital interest to Frenchmen, but the recent crop of political scandals has created a meud of disillusion which is heightened by the wrangling of the various political parties and the absence of any clear-cut lead. The main parties in the present provisoinal Parliament are: M.R.P. (Moderate Catholic Democratic group), led by M. Schumann and M. Bidault, the Communists, led by M. Maurice Thorez, the Socialists, led by M, Leon Blum, the Rassemblement des Gauches, a group formed from the old Lett Wing parties), led by M. Herrlot, and the P.R.L. (Parti Republicaine de la Liberte), which group has formed on the extreme Conservative Right. It Is expected that the split between General de Gaulle and the M.R.P. will lose that party a number of seats, but real interest in the election outside France will be in the gains or losses of the Communists. Their chief opponents are the M.R.P., the Rassemblement des Gauches and the various other conservative groups, with the Socialists occupying the intermediate position. The Communists have the advantage of a definite policy which opposes the divisions of Europe into eastern and western blocs, and promises better conditions for the workers, but General de Gaulle’s strong personal influence is likely to tell heavily against them.