beneath the federal government of Georges Pompidou, the historic precedent of 1962 | EUROtoday

It is 4:42 a.m. this Friday, October 5, 1962. Since Thursday afternoon, the National Assembly has been passionately debating the movement of censure tabled towards the federal government of Georges Pompidou. “Conspiracy”, “forfeiture”, “conjuration”, essentially the most violent phrases had been exchanged over the hours. The vote arrives, in the midst of the evening. Then it’s time to depend the votes. “Majority required for the adoption of the motion of censure: 241, recalls the Gaullist Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who chairs the session. For adoption: 280. The motion of censure is adopted. »

Never before have these words resonated in the Hemicycle since the establishment of the V^e Republic. They were never heard from again. Since 1958, nearly 150 motions of censure have been filed. But only one achieved its goal, that of October 1962. While waiting, perhaps, for the motion which will be debated, Wednesday November 4, to bring down the government of Michel Barnier.

The history of the only censorship adopted in more than sixty-five years is that of a fleeting success, which very quickly turns into implacable failure for its initiators. It all began on August 22, 1962, on a suburban road. In Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine), the car which took Charles de Gaulle to Villacoublay airport (Yvelines) with his wife and son-in-law suddenly found itself machine-gunned by several shooters. Some 150 bullets flew towards the President of the Republic. No one is affected. This failed attack instigated by a defender of French Algeria nevertheless accelerated General de Gaulle’s projects.

“Extravagant” and “dangerous”

To strengthen the political regime that he established 4 years earlier, and whose fragility this assassination try demonstrates in his eyes, the previous resistance fighter introduced, on September 20, a reform of the Constitution. He proposed that the President of the Republic ought to now not be elected by a school of electors, however by direct common suffrage, and he determined to submit this modification to the approval of all French folks by referendum.

Outcry amongst parliamentarians, who really feel bypassed, particularly since many jurists contest the process adopted. Elected officers, above all, refuse such a strengthening of the electoral base of the President of the Republic, and due to this fact of his energy, which out of the blue modifies the steadiness of establishments. On October 4, radical, unbiased, socialist and Christian-democrat deputies tabled a joint movement of censure.

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