FRANCE: To Right Center

On two successive Sundays, Frenchmen voted on candidates for their local Conseils Généraux, which vaguely resemble U.S. state legislatures in function. The results analyzed this week showed that the Communists still had nearly 25% of the popular vote. But without losing much numerical strength in the electorate, Reds faced a worsened position in French politics. Whenever a Communist had a chance of getting elected, all other parties tended to combine against him. In the last (1945) cantonal elections, Communists got 184 seats; this time, anti-Red coalitions held Communist victories to 37. The Gaullists got 29% of the popular vote,...

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