PTo challenge Anne Chemin’s in-depth analysis on “Proportionalism or the dream of a Parliament ‘mirror of the nation’ » (Land Monde of May 27), Hervé Gaymard and Arnaud Teyssier claim to be General de Gaulle by using their respective titles of president of the Foundation of the same name and president of its scientific council, in a column entitled “The proportional vote does not trust voters”, published in The world of June 15.
By covering behind the founder of the Ve Republic, our two énarques, one of whom is in active politics, actually want to justify their own political opinions in an article which ignores almost all of the General’s speech on the subject (see our study, “The Presidents of the Ve Republic and the method of electing deputies to the National Assembly, Powers No. 32, Proportional representation, January 1985).
In 1945, de Gaulle chose proportional representation. Is it a matter of principle? Not really. If the man of June 18 refused to follow, in 1945, the advice of his adviser Michel Debré or of his ministers like Jules Jeanneney, René Capitant or René Mayer, who encouraged him to introduce a majority vote, it was because he fears that the multiplicity of parties and especially of candidates, combined with the power of the Communist Party, will lead to its victory: “The result (of the first-past-the-post ballot), he wrote to Michel Debré in 1946, there were at least 250 Communists in the Assembly and, among other consequences, a representation which in no way expressed the opinion of the country. No doubt, after three or four tests, we would have witnessed the grouping of the fractions into three or four, then into two or three; but would there have been other trials? » (Letter to Michel Debré dated July 3, 1946).
Attention to party alliances
Similarly, General de Gaulle ruled out the two-round district ballot so as not to force the left-wing parties to unite with the Communist Party, “it would have been serious for the future” (!) (press conference of November 14, 1949). Thus, the adoption of proportional representation remained the only possible choice. General de Gaulle recalled in 1947 that he had “formally requested” in his speeches in Bayeux and Epinal a referendum on the electoral system, both this “has a profound influence on the functioning of public authorities” (declaration of August 27, 1946).
But, following the success of the RPF in the elections in 1950, he considered “the importance (of the voting method) which is completely secondary to the regime” and willingly cites the example of the district ballot in force under the IIIe Republic (press conference of March 16, 1950). Proportional representation within the framework of the department and majority list voting are even “two frank and honest electoral systems”.
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