Pierre Mendès-France talked the language of action, used such expressions as "original," "daring," "the need for a psychological shock." "You must choose," was his challenge to the Assembly. His fellow Radical Socialist Edgar Faure talks the language of moderation and gradualism, speaks of "carom shots," and "economic billiards." "If you can't get over an obstacle, go around it," he likes to say. Last week the French Assembly chose to go around with Faure.
For three weeks, as French movie audiences cheered pictures of Mendès and booed the procession of Old Guard leaders to the presidential palace, France's ship of state had been in irons—sails thrashing, the crew in shouting confusion. Night after night, old President René Coty had climbed from his bed to confer with pouchy-eyed politicians, while ample Madame Coty padded about the palace kitchen in her silken peignoir, serving endless cups of coffee.
Faure was the fourth choice to form a government, a man whom the party leaders themselves finally agreed was the best hope. "He is the exact middle," explained Elder Statesman Paul Reynaud. Shrewdly, the Assembly's old cuties had calculated that Faure was young enough, dynamic enough, and leftist enough to cut the ground from under Mendès with the voters. "His dialogue is left, his politics right. This is a very useful arrangement," said one supporter.
The Juggler. But even Faure almost failed before he succeeded. His first move was to consult his old friend Mendès-France. Mendès had kept Faure on as Finance Minister after the fall of the Laniel "richman's government," until Mendès could turn his personal attention to reform of the creaking French economy. More than any man, Faure is credited with France's relative prosperity of the past year and a half. But even before Mendès' fall, there had been friction between Mendès and his more conservative Finance Minister. Now Mendès flatly refused him support unless Faure would "remake our old majority," i.e., get the support of the Socialists for a left-center coalition. Dutifully, Faure tried. But the Socialists, eager to campaign for higher wages in the 1956 elections without the embarrassment of having participated in a government that kept the lid on, refused him. Faure turned to the conservatives for his majority, and Mendès turned openly hostile.