The Man from Calvados

Every Frenchman knows Calvados, the fiery Norman applejack, but few knew much about the man from Calvados. When Joseph Laniel rose in the tribunal of the National Assembly last week to make his bid to become Premier of France, he brought to that jaded assembly something of the freshness of the Normandy apple country he represents. A friendly, ruddy-faced man of 63, barrel-chested Assemblyman Laniel offered a "maybe-yes maybe-no" program with all the tight-fisted caution of a Norman farmer. After 36 days of bitter inter-party feuding, the fact that Joseph Laniel was relatively unknown (i.e., lacked enemies) made him an acceptable Premier. Nobody questioned him hard. The Assembly cheered him, voted him into power 398 to 206.

A Laniel has represented the department of Calvados in the French Parlia ment for more than half a century. When old Henri Laniel, wealthy linen manufacturer, died in 1932, if seemed natural to Normans that son Joseph, a much-decorated artillery captain in World War I, should take his father's seat in the Assembly. Young Laniel achieved no particular distinction in politics, though in the dark days of 1940 he was for a time Under Secretary for Finance in Reynaud's ill-fated cabinet. When the Germans arrived, Laniel refused to operate the family linen factory, and his big farm at Bellerive-sur-Allier became an important Resistance headquarters. He was one of the founders with Bidault, of the Committee of National Resistance. On Liberation Day in August 1944, he walked beside De Gaulle down the Champs Elysees.

Believed to be one of the wealthiest men in the Assembly, he also has the reputation of being a model employer. Said Le Monde: "We are told his doctrine is on the right, and his heart is on the left, exactly what is needed for a majority of the center." Besides, all that the Assembly wanted was a "summer Premier" who would not disturb things much. Laniel obligingly named six former Premiers to his cabinet, keeping Bidault as Foreign Minister and Rene Pleven as Defense Minister, and making his old right-wing friend, Paul Reynaud, a deputy Premier.

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