THE DOUBLE
CRISIS
sents, evidently, only 20-25 per cent of real French opinion. There
is therefore a certain irony in the
claim
of the Third Force to ex–
clusive expression of French "democracy."
If
so, we should expect
the Third Force to be the most ardent advocates of new general
elections that would permit an accurate registry of the popular will.
It is rather surprising for an American visitor, by the way, to learn
that this democratic government of the Third Force does not allow
De Gaulle's speeches to be broadcast.
Apart from this, however, it does not seem likely that a govern–
ment which has been repudiated in advance by the people can carry
through a firm and adequate policy. Rene Mayer is a man of intel–
ligence and wide experience. But what good can his economic plans
accomplish, if the government of which he is a part has no authority
and cannot excite any enthusiasm?
A number of your intellectuals are now trying to enlarge the
idea of the Third Force into a more philosophic and international
ideology, which is already having repercussions in other countries–
including the United States. When I read their statements, which
are rhetorically not ineffective, I cannot, however, forget the circum–
stances of the Third Force's birth.
I will confess to a habitual sympathy for the middle way-when
there is a middle way. Granted the limitations of man, compromise
is best, when compromise is possible. But somehow this Third Force
seems to me like an attempt to transform, by semantic magic, a
verbal slogan into a nonexistent social reality. When I look behind
the magician's handkerchief, the most I can find is a temporary
deal by some of the parliamentary parties.
Malraux:
The irremediable weakness of the Third Force lies
in the fact that it pretends to combine bureaucratic control in eco–
nomic affairs with liberalism in politics. Now whether under a
Stalinist or a fascist regime, there has never been, in circumstances
like these, a serious attempt at bureaucratic control which was not
backed up by a powerful police and a public state of mind opposed
to liberalism.
This discord is stridently evident in the economy, but it exists, at
least symbolically, in all fields. Moreover, the Third Force, pro–
foundly committed to parliamentarism, can never become more than
411
