Short Step Forward

Schoolmasterish Socialist Guy Mollet has lasted for six months as Premier of France because no one else wants the job of antagonizing the left by fighting the war in Algeria, and antagonizing left, right and center by demanding higher taxes to finance it. Last week Guy Mollet found a way to make some mileage out of his predicament.

A good European, Mollet decided to move France a short step forward toward United Europe. Before the National Assembly was a plan to authorize him to negotiate with five other Western European nations (Italy, the Benelux countries and West Germany) to create a supranational atomic-energy pool to be known as EURATOM.

There were good technical arguments for joining EURATOM: 1) France will run out of coal reserves in about 30 years, 2) France has neither the technical nor financial resources to run an atomic-energy program of its own. To this Mollet added another argument: "Confronted by the atomic colossi of Russia and the U.S., no isolated European country can make its voice heard. It is necessary to weave between the countries of Western Europe the bonds that will prevent Germany from turning to the East." Because nobody wanted to kick out Guy Mollet and inherit the mess in Algeria, Mollet won by 332-181.

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