Friday, Mar. 03, 1967

The Future of Gaullism

Inching behind a snowplow in his beige Peugeot, French Premier Georges Pompidou trekked manfully through the hills of his native Auvergne, waving at the few hardy souls on the roads. Warmed by a coal heater, Catholic Centrist Jean Lecanuet stood on a sawdust floor in Murat and told 300 townsmen that the government had forgotten them. Socialist Leader Franc,ois Mitterrand was in Ussel, holding forth on the evils of "caste and privilege" in a hall that stank of sweat and Gauloise Bleue cigarettes. And at Aubervilliers, Communist Waldeck Rochet denounced "social demagoguery" in a suitably dingy gymnasium.

Buried Hatchet. Thus, amid all the proclaimed grandeur of Charles de Gaulle's France, the Fifth Republic last week approached what may be the most important political event in its eight years of existence: this month's parliamentary elections. The first round of balloting is on March 5, with runoff elections a week later. Although De Gaulle's own job is not on the line, the future of Gaullism in France definitely is. This time around, the Gaullists suffer not only from a decline in the popularity of le grand Charles but from the fact that the opposition is better organized than ever before. Two months ago, for example, France's bickering leftist parties agreed to bury the hatchet long enough to try to defeat the Gaullists at the polls.

Moreover, while De Gaulle's foreign policy (including his snubbing of the U.S. and courting of the Communist bloc) is generally popular with the voters, the real issue this time is in the Frenchman's portefeuille. His pocketbook is noticeably thinner, in large part because De Gaulle has not done much recently for France's economy. Among Common Market countries, France trails all but Luxembourg in the growth of industrial production, while its cost of living (which rose 14% last year) is the highest in Europe. The unemployment rate, which for years was one of Europe's lowest and most stable, has climbed 11% since November. The Paris Bourse, in the doldrums since 1963, dropped another 10% last year. Faced with increasing signs of recession, many employers have had to eliminate the overtime pay with which the French have long bought the TV sets, autos and washing machines that are the symbols of their treasured vie de grand standing.

Opposition candidates have been quick to capitalize on the crisis. "In the past," says Marseille's popular Socialist mayor, Gaston Defferre, "people voted for De Gaulle because he represented security. This is no longer true. Gaullism has failed the country socially, financially and economically." Asks Liberal Catholic Leader Lecanuet, a resolute pro-American: "Why doesn't France progress? We cannot have a force de frappe, a policy of prestige and national ambition, and at the same time build 600,000 housing units each year."

Le Dauphin. The man who is in charge of overcoming these handicaps and gaining victory for the Gaullists is Premier Pompidou, 55, who, as De Gaulle's heir apparent, is now known in France as "Le Dauphin." Pompidou knows very well that unless he can engineer another clear Assembly majority for the Gaullists, he stands an excellent chance of being sacked by De Gaulle--just as was his luckless predecessor, Michel Debre, who is now Finance Minister. It is thus easier to understand the dithyrambic peroration with which, speaking as if in the presence of the Deity, the Premier opened the Gaullist campaign at a rally in Paris. Intoned Pompidou: "O France, resurrected thanks to Charles de Gaulle, may thou once again respond to his call, for thine honor and thy good." Amen.

Appeals to higher beings not withstanding, Pompidou is trying not to forget a single earthly trick. Although this is the first time he has ever stood for election, he has proved himself to be an able campaigner. Last week, in an unusual debate with Mitterrand before 2,000 onlookers on the Socialist leader's own home ground of Nevers, he proved himself the easy winner. Without question, Pompidou has also mounted the most formidable election machine that France has ever known. Using the government to promote the Gaullist image, he postponed the deadline for income tax returns until after the election, decreed an extra year of free schooling for French children and gave the country's civil servants their annual wage increase one month early.

Manipulating the free world's most sycophantic TV and radio network, he is imposing his own standards of fair play: 50% of political air time for the Gaullists and an equal 50% for all the opposition parties together. He also hired Services et Methodes, the public relations outfit that promotes James Bond in France, to oversee the fortunes of all Gaullist candidates--with the result that France is now inundated with phonograph records, printed scarves, key rings, magnetic lapel pins and De Gaulle election buttons bearing the message "La majorite, c'est vous" If such techniques were unfamiliar to the French electorate, so were many of the Gaullist candidates. At the personal orders of De Gaulle, the party sent the cream of the government's cadre of young intellectuals parading through the provinces in their drainpipe pants. De Gaulle also forced such star Cabinet members as elegant Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville and Minister of State Louis Joxe to run for office for the first time in their lives, excused Minister of Culture Andre Malraux from actively campaigning--though not from playing a part in the campaign--only because of his fragile health. As the 65-year-old Joxe confided at an electoral rally in Lyon: "I'm winding up where most political figures start out."

Endangered Majority. Publicly, the Gaullists profess to be unworried about the outcome. Privately, however, they concede that their majority is in danger. If the latest public opinion polls are any guide, France's next Assembly may be split fairly evenly between Gaullist and leftist Deputies, with the Center Catholics of Lecanuet holding the balance of power. Such an alignment would almost certainly wreck whatever chances Pompidou has of eventually taking over from De Gaulle. But it could also force De Gaulle to soften his anti-U.S. stand in the interest of a working agreement with the Center.

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