Abstract
As suggested in the conclusion to Chapter 2, the appeal of the PCF to the French electorate was in no small measure due to the certainty it represented when all around it seemed characterised by uncertainty and drift. Indeed, the continuity represented by the PCF at the height of its popularity could be contrasted with the debate about the very inception of the Fourth Republic. Historically, it could have been 25 August 1944, since that was the date on which the capital was liberated. Politically, the departure of de Gaulle from the presidency of the Conseil des ministres on 20 January 1946 was a watershed in terms of the break this constituted with the whole period of the Resistance. Juridically, however, one would opt for the period from October 1946 to January 1947, the creation of Paul Ramadier’s government and the establishment of new institutions, to situate the birth of a new constitutional system.
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Notes
D. S. Bell and B. Criddle, The French Communist Party in the Fifth Republic (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 80.
J. Fauvet, Histoire du parti communiste français, vol. II (Paris: Fayard, 1965), p. 293.
D. Caute, Communism and the French Intellectuals (London: André Deutsch, 1964), p. 228. It is also fair to note, however, that the communist intellectuals who mobilised in order to criticise the PCF’s supine endorsement of the Soviet line over Hungary, were generally those who were not deeply involved in the apparatus of the party. See also
S. Hazareesingh, Intellectuals and the French Communist Party (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), p. 146.
M. Evans, The Memory of Resistance: French Opposition to the Algerian War (1954–1962) (Oxford: Berg, 1997), p. 214. For key extracts of Thorez’s speech, see
B. Khedda, Les Origines du premier novembre 1954 (Algiers: Editions Dahlab, 1989), p. 292.
See the editorial by E. Fajon, L’Humanité, 27 April 1960.
P. Robrieux, Histoire intérieure du parti communiste, vol. IV (Paris: Fayard, 1984), p. 488.
S. Berstein, La France de l’expansion: La République gaullienne 1958–1969 (Paris: Seuil, 1989), p. 27.
De Gaulle himself described how the result far surpassed his expectations. See C. De Gaulle, L’Esprit de la Ve République: mémoire d’espoir (Paris: Plon, 1994).
For a clear and concise account of how this developed, see A. Cole (ed.), French Political Parties in Transition (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1990), Chapter 1.
N. Nugent, ‘The Strategies of the French Left’, in D. S. Bell (ed.), Contemporary French Political Parties (London: Croom Helm, 1982), pp. 71–88, p. 74.
M. Adereth, The French Communist Party: A Critical History, 1920–1984 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), p. 237.
See P. Robrieux, Histoire intérieure du parti communiste, vol. II, 1945–1972 (Paris: Fayard, 1981), p. 644.
J. R. Frears, Political Parties and Elections in the French Fifth Republic (London: Hurst, 1977), p. 199.
V. Wright and H. Machin, ‘The French Socialist Party in 1973: Performance and Prospects’, Government and Opposition, 9:2 (1974), 127–8.
While, superficially at least, it might seem improbable that a fraction like CERES, which saw itself as standing for a more complete type of socialism than all the others, would make common cause with a pragmatist like Mitterrand, in reality they had had to confront the same question as all the others: by what means can one help the Left to power without joining the PCF? Mitterrand appeared to offer the most viable compromise in pursuit of that aim. See D. Hanley, Keeping Left? CERES and the French Socialist Party (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986), p. 54.
D. Goldey and D. Bell, ‘The French Municipal Election of 1977’, Parliamentary Affairs, XXX:4 (1977), 408.
A. Cole and P. Campbell, French Electoral Systems and Elections since 1789 (Aldershot: Gower, 1989), p. 109.
D. Goldey and R. W. Johnson, ‘The French General Election of March 1973’, Political Studies, XXI:3 (1973), 336.
It was, as Alistair Cole has observed, a ‘triumphant defeat’ which thereafter enabled Mitterrand to govern the PS in a more presidential manner. See A. Cole, François Mitterrand: A Study in Political Leadership (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 74.
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© 2005 Gino G. Raymond
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Raymond, G.G. (2005). The Anti-system Party. In: The French Communist Party during the Fifth Republic. French Politics, Society and Culture Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230512870_4
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