Office of the Historian

13. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant) to the Secretary of State1

Washington, January 5, 1956.

SUBJECT

  • Qualitative appraisal of results of French general elections

The first thing that strikes us when we look at the result of the French elections is that about 200 seats, or almost a third of the new Assembly, will be occupied by extremists of the left and of the right, who are basically opposed to republican and parliamentary government. [Page 20] The 150-odd Communist seats represent an increase of just over 50 from the last Assembly. However this increase in seats is not the result of an increase in the percentage of the total popular vote. In fact, the percentage of the popular vote which went to the Communist Party marks a decrease of almost 1% compared with the last general elections in 1951.

The other 50 “extremist” seats have gone to a movement led by a discontented small shopkeeper called Poujade.2 It is hard to estimate at this time what this extreme rightist surge means. Undoubtedly it contains within itself various Fascist and anti-Republican elements. However the majority of the popular support behind Poujade seems to come from discontented elements who are protesting chiefly against taxation and adverse economic factors.

The personal rivalry between Mendes-France and the outgoing Premier, Edgar Faure, has resulted in splitting the middle-of-the-road Radical Socialist Party, to which both belong, the former allying himself with the Socialists, and the latter with the Conservative group. Mendes-France captured the control of the party but Faure retained a substantial proportion of the Deputies. If this split down more or less the middle of the Assembly were to continue, it would make the task of forming a government extremely difficult, and would further diminish the prospects of any government being able to carry out any internal programs, or to face up to the urgent issues in the field of foreign policy. It is too early to estimate the chances of cooperation between the “nonextremist” parties in the Assembly. We must hope that in spite of existing differences, there will be a realization that the future of French democracy, and of the French role in the world, may depend on a successful effort now being made to give France a government which can speak for her. This will mean finding a common denominator between the Socialists, the Popular Republican Movement, the Radical-Socialists (who must reunite), and the powerful Conservative Party led by Mr. Pinay. There are already signs that public opinion in France is at least aware of the nature of the challenge which France faces, and the tone of the speech made by the outgoing Premier, Mr. Faure, in Paris yesterday, January 4, was conciliatory.

The following positive factors should be borne in mind:

a)
The Socialist Party which took a strong anti-Communist electoral stand polled nearly 500,000 more votes than it did in 1951. This increases the prestige of its strongly pro-Western and pro-European [Page 21] unity Secretary General, Guy Mollet,3 and lessens the danger of a trend toward a Popular Front alliance with the Communists.
b)
The extreme right group has won 50 seats in the Assembly compared with the 120 Gaullist seats in the 1951 Assembly elections. Thus, in spite of the increase in the number of Communist seats, the number of seats in the new Assembly filled by members of parties which support NATO and pro-Western policies in general is larger than it was in 1951.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751.00/1–556. Confidential. Drafted by William R. Tyler, initialed by Merchant, and, according to a handwritten note on the source text, seen by the Secretary.↩
  2. Pierre M. Poujade, President of Union Pour la Défense des Commerçants et Artisans (Union for the Defense of Shopkeepers and Artisans).↩
  3. Guy Mollet succeeded in forming a coalition Cabinet late in January and was confirmed in office as Prime Minister by the National Assembly on February 1, 1956. His Cabinet included Pierre Mendès-France as Minister without Portfolio and Christian Pineau as Foreign Minister.↩