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Always Evasive. Despite all the words and resolutions, though, the Socialists and Communists are not about to form a full-scale leftist front. Beneath the current display of comradeship lie decades of bitter enmity, of unforgotten Communist boasts that they would "pluck the Socialist chicken" and Socialist taunts that the Communists were "not left but East." The differences have not been buried. The Socialists still agree with De Gaulle's assessment that "the Communists are not a French party" but "an army" that takes its orders from Moscow. Socialist leaders do not miss the fact that French Communists are always evasive when asked point-blank whether they would like to turn France into a Moscow-styled people's democracy.
Whatever the chances of alliance, the Communists emerged from the elections stronger than at any time since De Gaulle came to power. They have, as the French say, been "dedouane"—released from customs. Also, for the first time in the Gaullist era, they are expected to drop their role of sullen isolation in the Assembly, take part in its organization and committees. If they do so, they will, like the other major parties, elect a vice president of the Assembly, who will take his turn at presiding. Communist Deputies will likely be among French parliamentary delegations to the Council of Europe and the Common Market Assembly in Strasbourg.
Welfare Year. The elections will probably have little effect on Gaullist policies. If anything, the new Assembly can be expected to give more support than ever to his drive for closer relations with Eastern Europe and more distant relations with the U.S. and NATO. If there are changes, they will be almost entirely in social and economic policy. De Gaulle has already promised the voters that 1967 will be the great "Annee Sociale"—Welfare Year. At some point after the Assembly opens, he will also probably make some changes in his Cabinet; Premier Georges Pompidou, who won handily in his own district, seems likely to remain, but Loser Couve de Murville is expected to be replaced. Apparently, though, De Gaulle is not overly disappointed with the makeup of the Assembly itself. The opposition will be strong enough to give his government constant trouble but too weak to put it in mortal danger. Besides, if the Assembly gets too rambunctious, the general can always legally dissolve it and call new elections.
-* he Aeneid, Book II, in which Aeneas recounts to Dido how the Greeks sacked Troy.