The parliamentary other 1969–1997

Abstract

There seemed some kind of justice that de Gaulle’s discourteous and abrupt departure meant that Alain Poher moved into the Elysée. This was, of course, exactly what the constitution demanded: that the speaker should take over while the country prepared to elect a new head of state. But there was an extra piquancy to the fact that the rejected reform had proposed removing that very prerogative from the speaker and that the figurehead of the ‘no’ campaign stepped into the breach. No-one anticipated, however, that Poher would emerge as the principal challenger to the dauphin Pompidou. Looking back now at the 1969 campaign, Poher looks like a ‘somebody, anybody’ candidate, a last hurrah for the nostalgiques du régime parlementaire. The echo of the Third Republic, when the Petit Luxembourg had served as the antechamber to the Elysée, was unmistakable. But this was the Fifth Republic, not the Third, and presidentialism soon restored its grip.