Once More, the Ultimatum

Here I am, solemnly proposing a re form to our country. If then, out of reck lessness, the French people opposed it, what kind of man would I be if with out delay I did not draw the consequences of such a deep fissure?

Four times since he came to power in 1958, Charles de Gaulle has faced Frenchmen with the threat to step down unless his proposals received their endorsement. Each time the French have submitted to his will. Yet his statement on French television last week that he was turning the April 27 referendum into a vote of confidence caught most French citizens by surprise. For one thing, the issues hardly seemed important enough for De Gaulle to stake his career on them. For another, interest in the referendum has been so slight that the outcome is by no means certain. A poll taken a few days before his speech indicated that 52% of the electorate planned either not to cast ballots at all or were undecided how they would vote.Of the remaining 48%, the sampling was almost evenly divided between oui and non.

Three Issues. It is little wonder that most Frenchmen are unenthusiastic about the referendum. The text itself, which runs for 14 turgid pages, is enough to drive most voters away. Furthermore, the referendum demands a single answer on three totally different issues. One of them is De Gaulle's plan to decentralize French bureaucracy by taking much administrative power away from officials in Paris and giving it to the provinces. In pursuit of this goal, De Gaulle wants to consolidate France's 95 departments into 21 "economic regions" that will have their own legislatures.

The second point concerns the French Senate, whose members have often been De Gaulle's most persistent opponents. If the general has his way, the Senate would be troublesome no more; he would strip the French upper house of its already limited legislative and investigative functions and turn it into a consultative council that would have no power at all. Finally, De Gaulle wants to change the order of succession so that the president of the Senate no longer would become interim head of state in the event of the death or disability of the elected President. That function would go to the Premier, a change that would give De Gaulle more say in picking the next resident of the Elysee Palace.

Alternate Choice. If the French voters actually want to get rid of le grand Charles, they now have the perfect opportunity. Former Premier Georges Pompidou has announced that he would be a willing replacement if De Gaulle quit--and in last year's May-June crisis of rioting and strikes, Pompidou provided Frenchmen with an impressive demonstration under fire that he can do the job. There are indeed some indications that the French are tiring of De Gaulle. In the eleventh year of his Fifth Republic, a new slogan is being scrawled on walls and sidewalks in Paris: "Dix ans, c,a suffit"--"Ten years, that's enough." There are widespread worries about France's weak economic position and the continued threat of the devaluation of the franc. Still, on evidence of the past record, it would be unwise tc bet against Charles de Gaulle until the last non has been counted.

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