The Revolving Door

France, keystone of Western Europe's defense, is giving the democratic world a shocking exhibition of political irresponsibility. Six weeks after the general election, France is still without a government. The center parties, which united during the campaign to defeat the Gaullists and Communists (TIME, June 25), are hopelessly divided.

Potential middle-of-the-road Premiers, trying to put together a cabinet, whizzed in & out of France's political revolving door:

P: Henri Queuille (Radical), 67, outgoing Premier, first to be asked by President Auriol to form a new government, refused, pleading ill health. P: Maurice Petsche (Independent), 55, able Minister of Finance in the retiring cabinet, gave up after one week. P: Robert Schuman (M.R.P.), 65, ex-Foreign Minister, refused. P: Rene Mayer (Radical), 56, ex-Minister of Justice, took a week to put a program together, failed to get the required confidence vote from the Assembly. P: Georges Bidault (M.R.P.), 51, ex-Premier, gave up after one day. P: Paul Reynaud (Independent), 72, Premier at the time of France's defeat in 1940, gave up after one day ("the parties are not yet willing to make the necessary concessions").

The would-be Premiers failed chiefly because the Catholic M.R.P. party and the Socialists refuse to compromise on a burning domestic issue: state aid to church schools. The M.R.P. demands state aid, the Socialists are resolutely opposed. Another complication: the Socialists want a sliding wage scale pegged to the cost of living; other parties are against it, fearing that France's inflation would get worse. Spurned so far by the center parties: any deal with the Gaullists or Communists, who between them command 224 seats in the 627-seat Assembly.

At week's end the revolving door spun around again to Petsche, who took another crack at the situation--as a "conciliator" between the parties.

Until France gets herself a government, long overdue decisions (on French airfields for NATO, West German rearmament) are impossible.

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