Not for 80 years of parliamentary regimes had France been a whole month without a Premier. "A moral and social crisis," said President Vincent Auriol, calling on 21 leading French politicians to pick a man for the job. They could not agree. The Socialists walked out. But 18 others, including nine ex-Premiers, worked out measures they thought they could all agree on, at least long enough to form a government. On this basis, President Auriol asked one of them, Antoine Pinay, a small-town leather merchant who was Premier for most of last year,...
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