Skin Deep

Why don't French party leaders get together? Several generations of Frenchmen and foreigners had pettishly asked this rhetorical question. Last week, leaders of France's three major parties--who hate each other--were united in a campaign for the new constitution. But millions of Frenchmen did not like a unity they considered artificial and unprincipled.

On the surface, the coalition of Popular Republicans (MRP), Communists and Socialists could put over the new constitution in next Sunday's referendum by a thumping majority. Between them, these parties had polled 14,976,000 votes in the last election, as against 4,835,000 for the parties now opposing the constitution.

Nevertheless, TIME Correspondent Andre Laguerre cabled:

"I personally disagree with the general view that the constitution will be carried by an overwhelming majority of eight million. I think that De Gaulle can take half the MRP votes away and a good many Socialist votes. I think the probability is that the constitution will be carried by a fairly small majority, and I would be willing to bet on its rejection if anyone would give good odds."

Among factors noted by Laguerre:

P: De Gaulle's open opposition (he wants a strong executive branch) will attract many votes; he is especially popular among peasants and women of all classes.

P: In the provinces the Roman Catholic Church is discreetly encouraging a "no" vote.

P: Many MRP voters oppose Communism as a matter of basic principle, dislike any deal with the Communists.

Under the Surface. Although the Constituent Assembly voted 440-to-106 for the new constitution, its last session demonstrated that the unity of the majority was no more than skin deep. The majority hoped to demonstrate its solidarity by greeting the vote with a Vive la France, singing the Marseillaise and decorously adjourning. But a single muttered sentence wrecked that hope, and sent the Assembly into a near riot.

As olive-skinned Ferhat Abbas, Algerian autonomist, mounted the speaker's rostrum, the atmosphere tensed. A rightist deputy growled: "What is that salaud doing here?" Flushed with anger, the Algerian answered that he was there to denounce the highly touted project of the new French union incorporated in the constitution as "codifying a new colonialism as dangerous as the colonialism of yesterday. The colonial policy of France was one of the principal sores of the Third Republic." An angry clamor broke out in the Chamber. Some rightist and center deputies stalked out in indignation. Others, including MRP President Maurice Schumann, bolted from their seats toward the speaker in a menacing fashion, shouting insults as they came. Algerian followers of Abbas got ready to join the seemingly inevitable melee as the siren in the corridors shrilled to evacuate the press and public galleries. But, to the obvious relief of President Vincent Auriol, a small army of quickwitted ushers surrounded the menaced speaker and restored order by coaxing Abbas off toward the Communist benches, which greeted him with feeble applause.

This mess and many another such straw indicated the deep divisions within France. Nevertheless, Premier-President Georges Bidault, burning mad at De Gaulle's opposition, prepared to fight the rift in his own party by stumping the country for the new constitution. If it lost, Bidault's rising star would probably decline, and Charles de Gaulle would again be the dominant figure in France.

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