Why did Francois Mitterrand, after winning an absolute majority in the Assembly, take Communists into his government, thereby risking difficulties with foreign leaders and possibly causing some second thoughts among his center-left constituency? The fact is that, whatever one may …
I have written in Dissent [in the Summer 1980 issue] about activities of rightist groups in France that are openly racist although they now call that age-old hatred by new and discreet names. They’ve surely had some success with the …
On November 4, 1978, with the best intentions in the world, the weekly L’Express published an interview with Darquier de Pellepoix, former Commissioner General for Jewish Affairs in the Petain government. Readers may remember that Darquier was appointed to this …
The French Left has seemed strangely silent since its defeat–which was so nearly a victory–in the election of May 1974. Perhaps it had first to overcome its disappointment at having missed out by so narrow a margin. But the new …
The three political fathers of the idea of a United Europe—Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide de Gasperi—had each experienced excesses of nationalism that made them sense the urgency of devising a political solution for nationalistic confrontations. Schuman was a …
The three political fathers of the idea of a United Europe—Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide de Gasperi—had each experienced excesses of nationalism that made them sense the urgency of devising a political solution for nationalistic confrontations. Schuman was a …
Everyone in Paris knows that the French Communist party (CP) is no longer a revolutionary party bent on seizing power by force or subversion—perhaps simply because this would be impossible. In signing the Common Program for an electoral bloc with …
The 1968 French elections, held on the heels of the May riots, gave the Gaullist UDR and the Right generally a parliamentary majority. Everyone knew—as Edgar Faure, prominent member of the majority, said—that the primary cause of this success was …
We have recently had some interesting new political books in France. La Nouvelle Société, by Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the Premier of France; Le Grand Tournant du Socialisme, by Roger Garaudy, a leading Communist intellectual; and Le Manifeste du Parti Radical, by …
If we set aside the events of May 1968 (how aberrant they really were becomes increasingly evident), we may wonder whether it does not take a world war or the jolts of decolonization for France to lose her electoral equilibrium. The …
We were accustomed to seeing the Communists and their friends in every country of the world quickly forget the “errors,” even the “crimes,” of the Soviet Union, attributing them sometimes to “capitalist encirclement,” sometimes to the “cult of personality.” But it …
Pierre Mendes-France was beaten at Grenoble by the former Gaullist minister Jean-Marcel Jeanneney. Out of an electorate of about 40,000, Jeanneney’s plurality was 130. In beginning with such an example, I do not wish to pretend that all the Gaullist …
It all began in Nanterre. Those who were surprised by the events of May 1968 would do well to visit the spot where the conflagration broke out. There, between a shantytown perched on a low plateau and low-cost housing developments, …
“England,” said a European statesman, “offered a Europe of computers; Couve de Murville chose a Europe of sugar beets.” Beyond the political considerations that led General de Gaulle to veto England’s entry into the Common Market, there was, indeed, the choice …
“He made a mistake” —this confused admission of his followers may herald the end of the de Gaulle myth. The French role in the Middle East crisis last summer not only shocked de Gaulle’s followers; it made them aware there …
