Democratic Victory

In an atmosphere strained as the inside of a tiger cage, France last week held its first election since Gaston Doumergue took over the Premiership during the bloody riots which followed the Stavisky disclosures (TIME. Feb. 19). At stake were local provincial offices everywhere except in Paris. Month or so ago any political prophet would have said that the public's never-ceasing indignation at the corruption revealed by the "Stavisky affair" would be the major issue in any French election. But fortnight ago Papa Doumergue, in a drive to push through his proposed reforms of the French Constitution (TIME, Oct. 8), broadcast a new issue to the Republic's voters by bitterly attacking the Communist-Socialist United Front which has steadfastly opposed his plans. He begged support for his governmental policies and Edouard Herriot's own big bourgeois Radical-Socialist group.

Last week, after another ardent broadcast from the Premier, French citizens went to the polls, gave Doumergue a substantial, if not a smashing victory over his Communist-Socialist opponents. Believers in democracy breathed more freely.

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