At last it looked as if poorly led France had found a helmsman. Nimble little Pierre Mendes-France emerged from near-obscurity to end the Indo-China war, kill off EDC and exact huge concessions from France's allies. Last week he demonstrated beyond all doubt that he is now the most popular man in France and its strongest Premier since the heyday of Charles de Gaulle.
Only four months ago he was an outsider, disliked as an intellectual and a heckler, attacked by bigots as a Jew and by fellow politicians for his unabashed ambition. Last week, a phenomenon of 47, he was able to:
¶ Persuade the National Assembly, a sizable majority of which opposed Germany's rearmament, to vote 350 to 113 in favor of the principle of rearming West Germany and admitting it to NATO. ¶ Soften the big Socialist Party (105 Assembly seats) for an almost certain switch from hostile noncooperation to participation in the Mendes government. ¶ Win from fading Charles de Gaulle the promise that his followers will soon be freed to support Mendes and his program for France.
Voila, un Miracle! Mendes accomplished this with a mixture of nerve, showmanship and canny political maneuver. To win the "massive majority" he desired for the London agreement, he put Socialists in a position where they risked scrapping him and his economic program, which the Socialists favor, if they tried to scrap the London proposals. Mendes drove his point home by rushing through a 6.5% bonus for industrial workers and low-ranking bureaucrats, and by promising another raise next April—if his government is still in power. The Socialist leaders, he reasoned, would hardly dare bring down a government that promised to do so much for the constituents back home.
Mendes reasoned correctly. At an urgent conference, the Socialist rank and file overruled their wavering leader, Guy Mollet, and pledged all their party's 105 votes to the Premier. "Voila, un miracle!" huffed an anti-Mendes Deputy when he heard the news. "Since the government decided to increase wages ... it is assured a comfortable majority."
Mendes did not stop with the Assembly vote on the London agreement, but drove for a bigger prize: Socialist participation in his government. On the telephone he offered Guy Mollet four Cabinet posts in return for Socialist support. Asked Mollet: Who will select the ministers? Answered Mendes: "Moi." Soon it was common knowledge that Socialist support of the government was only a matter of time.
More than Expected. With his left flank so neatly reinforced, Mendes turned next to the right. A hint, a subtle suggestion, and General Charles de Gaulle, who once described the Mendes regime as a "mudhole." asked for an appointment with the Premier. Mendes was delighted, and after busily dodging newsmen, the two who have made the most impact on France since World War II met at the Hotel La Perouse, an old-fashioned hostelry on the right bank of the Seine.