France: An Identity of Views

President Charles de Gaulle last week picked a new Premier: Scholar-Banker Georges Pompidou, 50, a man who has never been elected to political office or served on a legislative body.

The resignation of Premier Michel Debré has been long rumored. Physically exhausted by his twelve-hour days as De Gaulle’s errand boy, Debré has increasingly opposed, in private, De Gaulle’s policy of centralizing authority in the presidency and his ignoring of the National Assembly. In the wake of De Gaulle’s overwhelming victory in the national referendum approving the cease-fire agreement with the Algerian F.L.N., Debré argued for immediate parliamentary elections. His point: chances for a Gaullist sweep were now at their peak but would progressively decline in the months to come as the nation faced such issues as wages and prices, European political organization, nuclear policy—and touchiest of all—the voting of funds to an independent, Moslem-run Algeria.

De Gaulle, however, was disappointed by the high number of abstentions in the referendum—24.6% of the electorate—and by the number of invalid ballots, many of which were deliberately mutilated to indicate qualified disapproval of De Gaulle’s demand for more personal power. He snapped to Premier Debré: “This country is flabby. This referendum is flabby.” When De Gaulle decided to postpone parliamentary elections, Debré’s usefulness seemed at an end and, loyal as ever, he handed in his resignation.

New Premier Pompidou is a former schoolteacher from the mountainous Auvergne region of central France. He served on De Gaulle’s civilian staff after World War II, aided the general in producing his Memoirs, and has long been a close personal friend. A tall, hefty intellectual with bristling eyebrows and a heavy-featured face, Pompidou joined the investment bank of Rothschild Frères in 1954, swiftly rose to general director. Stolid where Debré was emotional, inclined to make broad judgments where Debré worried over details. Pompidou has been described as having “the same view of France and the same view of De Gaulle’s destiny as De Gaulle himself.” His appointment is widely interpreted as evidence that De Gaulle intends to lay an even heavier hand on the reins of government.