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De Gaulle, aloof as ever and 65 now, has made no effort to encourage such talk. He is in good health, though he recently underwent an operation for a cataract on an eye. Two weeks ago the remnant of his Gaullist "Rally of the French People" held a congress, proposed a program: the President of the French Republic would call on De Gaulle as the next Premier. De Gaulle would demand from the Assembly full emergency powers, including full power to deal with Algeria. The Assembly would then send itself on a permanent vacation. De Gaulle would summon a constitutional assembly composed of leaders of political groups, professions, labor unions and jurists to draft a constitution for a new regime presidentiel. The new constitution would be submitted to the voters of France in a national referendum, and if accepted, a President elected. If the constitution was rejected, De Gaulle would retire and the Fourth Republic would carry on as before.
Political dopesters immediately concluded that these were De Gaulle's minimum conditions for returning to power. De Gaulle did not deny it; he merely declared that the statement was "inopportune."
If the Algerian crisis should subside without disaster, so would many of the demands for change. But in the present state of the Fourth Republic, there is no clear-cut political majority prepared to fight in Algeria to the end. Neither does there seem to be one strong enough to conclude a negotiated peace.
The Fourth Republic is tired of living and afraid of dying. It might soon have to make a choice.