Word: mende
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Paris. A short, stocky man in a black topcoat hurried out of the old grey stone National Assembly building on the Quai d'Orsay. Minutes earlier Pierre Mendès-France had been Premier of France, the most popular, brilliant and energetic man to hold the office since the inception of the Fourth Republic. Now, ringing in his ears were the hoarse shouts and curses of his colleagues in the Chamber of Deputies still panting from the bitterest, most vindictive and unseemly overthrow of any Premier in recent French history...
...hungry French politicians have a word, usé (used-up, soiled), for a government at the moment that it may be voted down and Cabinet portfolios redistributed. Last week the opposition, having tried out its voting strength on a couple of small issues, and satisfied itself that Mendès was about usé, was ready for the big kill. Hunting ground: the debate on North Africa...
...longest Cabinet meeting in the nine years of the Fourth Republic. For 8½ hours Premier Mendés-France listened to the protests of his political colleagues, readvanced his argument, and finally got his way: the appointment of Gaullist Jacques Soustelle, 43, as governor general of Algeria. When they heard the news, opposition Deputies cried "à la soupe!" (i.e., gravy). In his own Radical Party, Mendés had to face severe criticism. Said ex-Premier René Mayer: "This action may gain the Prime Minister votes from some other quarters, but it may well cost him an equal...
...enduring enmity of French Reds. But he is also no friend of the U.S.: during his anthropological work he became convinced that south of the Rio Grande the U.S. is a nasty old imperialist. His brilliant, biting speeches against German rearmament helped kill EDC, and he has attacked Mendès' own Paris Accords...
...time when many Frenchmen feel that Arab demands in North Africa are getting out of hand, Soustelle's appointment will strengthen Mendès' position in the forthcoming Assembly debate. With the full support of his own party and the votes of Soustelle's Gaullist friends, he should carry the Assembly. Said Mendes: "I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic...We will...