Word: referendum
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...causes were many?some petty, some profound, some a matter of substance, some of style. No single one was perhaps decisive, but in sum they represented a massive indictment. Many French voters doubtless cast their ballots on the merits of the issues raised in the referendum, ignoring the eschatology of De Gaulle's destiny. The referendum's proposal for government decentralization spawned a host of local antagonisms from communities that stood to lose by it. Nancy, the historic capital of Lorraine, was incensed that smaller Metz, a city of Germanic language and origin, would become the capital of its region...
...village of Briare (TIME, April 25), a near-perfect voting profile of France in the six previous elections, lost its sole distinction in the seventh by voting 54% in favor of the referendum?almost the mirror opposite of France's 53% rejection. The city of Paris turned down the referendum 56% to 44%, and it could not win a majority even in the chic 7th, 8th and 16th arrondissements, the silk-stocking districts of Paris, and normally solid Gaullist. Women voters, who have made up another Gaullist bastion, gave 10% less than the 70% they mustered in 1962. Finally...
...about his moment of departure had been dispelled. France simply no longer feared the "deluge" that De Gaulle so often promised would follow him. FRANCE CONTINUES, headlined a Marseille paper when the moment finally arrived, but no one any longer doubted that France would. On the night of the referendum, there were some sharp, ugly scenes in the Latin Quarter between police and students, but they were largely provoked by the flics, as though attempting to incite the Gaullist prophecy into reality. If that was the aim, it failed. France accepted the vacuum calmly, fascinated by the details...
...assumed close management of the Gaullist party, personally selecting many of its candidates and maintaining ties with the winners in Parliament. His control became dominant in the crisis-ridden atmosphere of last spring, when he even advised De Gaulle not to follow through on his promise of a personal referendum. Instead, Pompidou cannily proposed the alternative of parliamentary elections, on which only Pompidou's?not the general's?prestige would be staked. "If you lose the referendum, Mon Général, the regime is lost," said Pompidou. "If I lose the elections, I will be the only one to lose...
Poher was largely unknown to Frenchmen before the referendum battles, in spite of a 25-year public career. The son of a successful civil engineer, he won degrees in engineering, law and political science, became a protégé of Robert Schuman and served at sub-Cabinet level in several Fourth Republic governments before entering the Senate. Schuman converted him into a European unionist. Poher worked with the European Coal and Steel Community, later became a member of the European Parliament at Strasbourg. Last October he was elected Senate President, succeeding its longtime leader Gaston Monnerville, who had resigned...