France Between 1949 and 1959 Part VI

The nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt (26 July), in addition to damaging the conspicuous French interests in the Company, aroused a patriotic wave in France due to the aid given by ‛Abd an-Nāṣir to the Algerian rebels. A mission by Foreign Minister Pinay to Cairo, which had come to nothing despite promises, had convinced most ministers, including resident Lacoste, that the victory of Algeria passed through the Egyptian capital. Incitements to action against Egypt also came from Morocco, where Sultan Mohammed V, who was also in favor of Algerian independence (preferably through an agreement with France), saw in the revolutionary ambitions of the Egyptian colonel a serious threat to his spiritual position and to his throne. Finally, as always, France proved very sensitive to the desperate appeals of besieged Israel. This state was abundantly supplied with state-of-the-art weapons, and its prime minister D. Ben Gurion, who came secretly to France in September, obtained from Mollet the assurance that the Paris government would not allow it to be crushed by Arab armies. In reality, the Franco-English intervention against Egypt (5 November) was resolved for various reasons (v.suez, in this App.) in a failure. The backlash of the failed expedition was particularly severe in Algeria, where the rebellion regained momentum and audacity. Inside, the reactions to the intervention mixed with those provoked by the escalation of the Algerian rebellion and, as regards the obstructive attitude of the Communists, with the dramatic impressions provoked by the Hungarian revolt. Overall, the intervention in Egypt was approved by a very large majority by the parliament, but its outcome raised many doubts about the ability of the government to lead socialist. The latter also ended up antagonizing the MRP for its declared intention to repeal the Barangé law on subsidies to private schools. Meanwhile, the independence of Morocco was perfected (March 2),

According to naturegnosis, the indecisive Algerian politics, a social program without reference to financial resources, and the recourse to the tax authorities, raised the opposition of the independents and moderates against the government. Mollet was overthrown in the Chamber (May 21, 1957) on the financial program: however, he was credited with the ability to have preferred to abandon power in this way, rather than risking the fracture of the SFIO on Algerian politics. In fact, the first important defections from the socialist ranks date from that time, which contributed to the birth of the Union de la gauche socialiste (December 8, 1957), into which the Nouvelle Gauche, the Action Socialiste, the Socialist Unité and most of the Jeune République. The new political formation professed a revolutionary socialism and, above all, he declared himself in favor of ending the Algerian war. On March 25, 1957, France participated in the signing of the constitutive instruments of the European Economic Community and Euratom in Rome.

The phase of transitionthe governments of Bourgès – Maunoury and Gaillard. – The socialist experiment also failed, the leadership of the government returned to the hands of the center-left professionals, in an evident phase of transition. The young radical M. Bourgès-Maunoury established a government (11 June) with the socialists and radical dissidents: he succeeded in getting new fiscal measures approved, but failed on the so-called “loi-cadre” of Algeria, which involved a kind of Franco-Algerian federal statute (30 August). No better fate fell to the no less young radical Félix Gaillard, who had made his mark in the previous months as finance minister, succeeding among other things skillfully in the difficult operation of a new devaluation of the currency. Established (November 4) a government of radicals, socialists, MRPs and moderates, he managed to get the “loi-cadre” approved with few changes: but immediately afterwards had to face a serious tension with Morocco and especially with Tunisia, which insisted on the departure of the French presidencies and asked for reparations for the bloody bombing of Sakhiet (February 8, 1958) by French planes. The Tunisian troops had put the blockade around the provisions of the French ones, creating a very threatening situation. Great Britain and the USA then offered their “good offices” to resolve the dispute. The Tunisian troops had put the blockade around the provisions of the French ones, creating a very threatening situation. Great Britain and the USA then offered their “good offices” to resolve the dispute. The Tunisian troops had put the blockade around the provisions of the French ones, creating a very threatening situation. Great Britain and the USA then offered their “good offices” to resolve the dispute.

The mission of the American diplomat Robert Murphy and the Englishman Harold Beeley alarmed the French right from the beginning, fearful of an implicit internationalization of the Algerian problem, the main bone of contention between Paris and Tunis. Bidault, Soustelle, Morice, Debré and Duchet called for a “government of public health”. Thus a climate of confusion and disorder was created, especially in the French capital where the police, who went on strike, violently demonstrated in front of the National Assembly. The patient negotiations of Murphy and Beeley made it possible to resolve all the points of the Franco-Tunisian dispute, except the most important: that of border control between Tunisia and Algeria. The French government rejected the participation of a UN “observer”

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