TO SURVIVE DE GAULLE
tion — political, economic, and military. “For me, the [Gaullist] adventure
is essentially the march toward the future,” writes Edmond Michelet.25
The UNR is the "formation de l'avenir," announces a party pamphlet.26
“The profound thought of General de Gaulle can be expressed in a few
words: ‘renewal of French institutions,’ ” declared Albin Chalandon, the
UNR’s second Secretary-General.27 Throughout party declarations runs this
consistent theme: the UNR is a dynamic movement whose mission is to
“construct the new France,”2* to “lead this country toward the destinies of
the Twenty-First Century.”29 One of the party’s publications was baptised
La Nouvelle Frontière, as evidence of the Gaullists’ commitment to getting
their own country moving. Rapid economic expansion, greater social justice,
the application of modern techniques in the reform of French institutions,
rapid population growth — all of these goals make of the Gaullist party a
party of movement as well as a party of order, setting it far apart from the
stalemate or reactionary parties of the traditional Right.
When one proceeds to more specific questions of social and economic
policy, however, the Gaullist consensus very nearly collapses. Here Gaul-
list attitudes range from laissez-faire noninterventionism to democratic so-
cialism. On the left are those like the leaders of the Vnion Démocratique de
Travail (joined with the UNR in December, 1962), and of the Action
Ouvrière et Professionnelle within the UNR, many of whom continue to
view Gaullism as “a socialism adapted to our old civilization,”'"’ as “the
only socialism which has wed its century.”"' Gaullists of this persuasion like
to recall that it was the de Gaullc government of 1944-1946 which initi-
ated state economic planning, which established France’s first comprehen-
sive social security system, and which nationalized the coal mines, gas
and electricity, civil aviation, the merchant navy, four of the largest banks,
and the Renault automobile factories. They recall that one of the central
themes of RPF propaganda was the “association of capital and labor”
through profit sharing and through institutionalized collective bargaining.
Understandably, they reacted with dismay and alarm when de Gaulle re-
turned from political exile and entrusted the powerful Ministry of Finance
from 1958 to January. 1966, first to Antoinc Pinay and next to Valcry
Giscard d’Estaing — neither of whom was a UNR member and both of
whom were relatively orthodox economists whose primary concern was
with preventing inflation, even at the cost of freezing wages and delaying
social welfare reforms.
Since de Gaulle has limited interest in economic questions, his followers
have few guidelines around which to rally. All tend to agree with Michcl
Debre that economic expansion and some redistribution of income through
welfare state programs arc essential to that social solidarity which in turn
is a prerequisite of national greatness.'12 As early as November, 1959, the