FRENCH COMMUNISTS AND SOCIALISTS FORM SEINE ELECTORAL BLOC
| By Pierre Frank |
PARIS -- The political scene in France is at present dominated. by the approaching spring elections and the presidential election scheduled for the end of the year. [See World Outlook December 18,] To this should be added the parliamentary cretinism of the SFIO [the social-democratic Section Frangaise Internationale Ouvridre] and the PCF [Parti Communiste Frangais], their struggle against the de Gaulle regime being reduced to seeking posts and votes. Nevertheless, even within. this cramped framework, the tactics of the two big workers! parties are of importance «
‘The campaign for the municipal elections has now been opened, It has been considerably affected by modifications in the electoral laws passed by the de Gaulle government. In conmunities of more than 30,000 inhabitants (there are 159), it will no longer be possible to present one slate for the first round of voting and then reach deals on presenting different slates for the second round, Slates presented for the first, round must remain unchanged for the second. round. : 7 ‘This ‘provision was “designea to help the UNR [de Gaullets Union pour la, Nouvelle République], which is weak on a local scale, by preventing. or making more difficult combinations among opposing formations.:' Consequently agreements must now be made before the first
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round if voters are to be presented with mixed slates that would have a better chance of beating the slates backed by the UNR.
The SFIO has not adopted a uniform tactic for all of France, In certain towns, it is blocking with the Radical party and the MRP ~ [Mouvement Républicain Populaire]. In other towns, it is blocking with the PCF, .
‘The PCF, on the other hand, is seeking to advance. its policy of "genuine democracy" by trying to get slates of the "left." Negotlations have been under way for some weeks. 9. Out of this jockeying’ came a move that is destined to resound throughout 1965, The Seine federations of the PCF and the SFIO decided to present a common slate in Paris and the 39 communities of: the Seine under the name of a "Democratic Union." This decision alone affects: more than ten per cent of the electorate and cannot fail to have repercussions in other regions.
It should be noted. that to obtain this agreement, the POF had to make concessions, granting the Socialists a greater number of candidacies for the office of mayor than they are entitled to according to the voting pattern.
The agreement was at once characterized as a "Popular Front" by the.bourgeois press and it is:certain that as the time for balloting nears, the term "Popular Front" will be used as a scarecrow to whip up bourgeois and petty-bourgeois support for the candidates of the UNR «
“The main interest, however, is attached to another question: Does this decision portend. the formation of a neo Popular Front?
In reply, it can be said with certainty that this is not the intention of the leadership of the SFIO. The secretary of this organization, Guy Mollet, has clearly defined his policy on this point. He declared that nis party is ready to make electoral agreements with the PCF in order to defeat the Gaullist candidates butthat there would be no agreement on anything that could lead, as in the case of the Popular Front, to the establishment of a program for -@ governmental coalition. It must be granted that up to now the SFIO has not succumbed to rather strong pressure to move toward a "Popular Front. "
The’ policy of the PCF contains nothing designed to mount such pressure on the leadership of the SFIO. But de Gaulle's policies, which aim at reducing to nothing the positions of other parties whether bourgeois or labor, tends to bring the two big workers parties together with consequences that could go beyond the intentions and objectives of the two leaderships. It would be an exaggeration to-contend that this could come about rapidly, but the rapprochement of the workers parties is a tendency that is now fundamental in the.
French political scene,
What is the forecast for the outcome at the polls of the agreement that has just been concluded for the municipal elections in the Paris region? It can be assumed that the "Democratic Union" slate will. enable the PCF and the SFIO to maintain the positions they.:tow hold. The number of votes and the development of the electoral campaign will provide new data for closer estimation of the situation,
ANGOLAN MOVEMENT