22
RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES
suing elections. André Malraux, de Gaulle’s representative for the occasion,
offered the Gaullist name and, in most cases, exclusive Gaullist candidacy,
not only to the UNR candidates but also to Gaullists of the Left and to
certain Independents and Popular Republicans who consented to accept
the label — and the ensuing Gaullist discipline — of the Association of
the Fifth Republic. Following a Gaullist electoral victory, the Democratic
Union of Labor (UDT), the Gaullists of the Left, quickly fused with the
UNR in what now, in December, 1962, officially became the UNR-UDT.
The UNR-UDT fusion brought into the government party such long-
standing Gaullists as René Capitant, Louis Vallon, and Jean de Lipkowski,
creators of the first Gaullist party, the Union Gaulliste, in 1946. Without
organizational unity or substantial cooperation from the UNR, Gaullists of
the Left had drawn less than one percent of the vote in 1958 and had failed
to elect a single deputy. They fused with the UDT in April, 1959, recruited
a membership of some two thousand (largely in Paris), published a bi-
weekly, Notre République, and kept alive an economic and social critique
from within the greater Gaullist family.’05 Their decision to fuse with the
UNR was based partially on the hope that they could be more influential
from within, and partially on de Gaulle’s determination that “the Left must
be present in Gaullism and Gaullism in the Left.”’00 De Gaulle is said to
have encouraged and even arbitrated efforts toward fusion.
With the help of the Fifth Republic label, the UDT elected fourteen
deputies in November, 1962, then, merging with the UNR, ceased to exist
as an organization. In return, its leaders were relatively well treated. Louis
Vallon became Rapporteur Général of the Finance Committee in the Na-
tional Assembly, René Capitant was named President of the National As-
sembly’s Committee on Laws; and two UDT leaders were appointed min-
isters, Jean Sainteny as Minister of Veterans, and Gilbert Grandval (a
holdover) as Minister of Labor.’07 Within the party organization, UDT
leaders such as Léo Hamon, Jean-Claude Servan-Schreiber, René Caille,
Pierre Billotte, and Gilbert Grandval have been active and influential in
a variety of positions. The UDT biweekly, Notre République, now became
an official UNR-UDT organ, although its editors remained unchanged and
it continued to press vigorously for social and economic reforms. The UDT
element lost some of its force within the UNR after the March, 1967, elec-
tions, in which Vallon was defeated. The Left Gaullist contingent survived,
however, strengthened by the association with the reorganized Gaullist
parliamentary group of such reform-minded ministers as Edgar Faure,
Minister of Agriculture, Edgard Pisani, Minister of Equipment, and Louis
Joxe, Minister of Justice.’05
Until 1967, Gaullists of the Left had rather limited impact on Gaullist
economic policy. In January, 1966, Giscard d’Estaing finally gave way to