Abstract

France at the Polls. The Main Issue: Algeria

The outcome of the French vote reflects the stability of the French electorate quite as clearly as it reaffirms the instability of Parliament. Other than the Poujadists, inheritors of the lunatic-fringe of the Gaullist vote, only the Rally of the Republican Left showed a shift of more than 2 per cent in popular support since the last general election of 1951. The Communists' extraordinary gain of fifty-two seats reveals more about the electoral laws here than about the electorate; in terms of percentage of popular vote, they actually lost 0.9 per cent. In the same context the Republican Left grouping, which includes both the Mendes-France and the Faure Radicals, climbed 2.7 per cent and the Socialists 0.6 per cent.