The Fall of No. 13

While NATO's diplomats were still congratulating themselves on the job done at Lisbon, the pivotal nation in West Europe's defense threw a disheartening-political tantrum. By a 16-vote margin, the French National Assembly overturned Premier Edgar Faure's 40-day-old cabinet.

Faure had staked the fate of his cabinet on a series of money bills designed primarily to finance France's $4 billion rearmament program. His plan: to save $200 million by slashing social services, raise an extra $600 million in direct taxation. He asked for 20 votes of confidence in a row, and fell on the second, a proposal to increase taxes 15%.

In the crowded National Assembly one night last week, doughty Edgar Faure explained that the new taxes are urgently needed for the campaign in Indo-China and for French defense at home. "I am living a nightmare daily," he said, "with what the treasury is paying out for the armies' costs." Item One, appropriating 130 billion francs for the Indo-China war, got a handsome majority--512 to 104. But Item Two brought a serious revolt in the ranks of Faure's own party, the right-wing Radical Socialists. Under heavy pressure from their peasant constituents, who disliked the Premier's plan to crack down on tax loopholes, dozens of Radicals deserted the government, teamed up with Gaullists and Communists to defeat the tax bill.

Disgusted Edgar Faure marched out of the Chamber, followed by his cabinet. In 40 days as Premier he had lost ten pounds. At 4:30 that morning he drove to the Elysee Palace, handed his resignation to President Auriol, and went home to bed. For the 13th time under the Fourth Republic, France was without a government.

Beyond Its Means. With the 1952 budget still unvoted, there was not enough cash on hand to carry on the routine duties of government. The gap between revenue and expenditures widened by $2,800,000 a day. At week's end, to fill civil servants' wage packets, the treasury asked the ailing Bank of France for a loan of 50 billion francs. It got only 25 billion, and a sharp reminder from Bank Governor Wilfrid Baumgartner: "The state, like its citizens, is living beyond its means . . ."

Urgently, President Auriol cast about for a new Premier. His first choice: nimble Paul Reynaud, Premier of France during the collapse of 1940. An old hand at coalition building (he has been in & out of six French cabinets), Reynaud is also a top-notch economist.

"National Union." Hurrying back to Paris last week from Britain, where he had spoken before the Oxford Union (see EDUCATION), 73-year-old Paul Reynaud boldly turned his back on the formula of weak minority coalitions set by his predecessors. Instead, he appealed to all French parties, except the Communists, to join a "Government of National Union." It was a timely appeal for French patriotism, but as a political maneuver it failed. Socialists refused point-blank to sit in the same cabinet with Gaullists. Sadly, Paul Reynaud gave up trying. Rene Pleven, called upon next, refused even to try.

Once again, in quiet desperation, aging President Vincent Auriol took top hat in hand, went begging from party to party in search of a cabinet.

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