The French Election

French officials are sober today, even if a bit hung-over from their months-long political binge. Presented by Monday's election with a Poujadist bloc of 51 seats on the far right and 153 Communist seats on the left, France's vital but anemic center finds itself further weakened while caught between two much-strengthened hostile parties. No single conceivable alliance has emerged with a majority or a claim to run the government.

Pierre Poujade, the election's only real victor, has already predicted that the moribund new assembly "will not last." Even if he is right, no inquest into its demise will be able to pin the ultimate blame on him. The feud between Mendes-France and Edgar Faure split the Radical Socialist Party, rent the Assembly's alliance of moderates, and paved the way for the extremists' victory. As a result, any constructive legislation by the new assembly will require that the center groups, already almost hopelessly divided among themselves, vote nearly unanimously together. The French battle has gone on too long, has been waged too acidly, and has too many complications like the election law and the Algerian situation to make any such agreement likely. In the final analysis, therefore, it is hard to find a final analysis.

Still, there are a few gray spots left in the picture. Despite their 50 per cent representative gain, the Communists actually suffered a slight reduction in popular vote. Their phenomenal representative increase stems from the tangled electoral law rather than from popular strength. More important, after the first shock of the election results had worn off, Premier Faure proposed again yesterday the formation of a long-needed government of "national union," which would include all parties from Socialists to Conservatives.

If Mendes-France, Faure, and their collective followers can reconcile themselves to such cooperation, there may be some hope left for French stability in the next five years. The prospect for such success is hardly encouraging; the French Assembly is not noted for its miracles. But the importance of a stable French government to Western Europe and the free world is worth at least the effort. If this week's election results awaken France's leaders to their responsibilities, her present crisis could yet become her greatest boon.