HEAD OF FRENCH GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24907, 21 June 1946, Page 7

HEAD OF FRENCH GOVERNMENT

M. BIDAULT ELECTED

DIFFICULTY IN FORMING CABINET PREDICTED (Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, June 18. M. Bidault,, at present French Foreign Minister and leader of the M.R.P. (Popular Republicans), the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, has been elected Chief of the Government. ' M. Bidault was unopposed, but the Communists and some other. Left Wing elements abstained from voting. M. Bidault polled 384 votes out of a possiblc 545 The Communist - leader, M. Duclos, earlier announced that he Would not oppose M. Bidault “in the superior interests of the nation,” but he would not vote for him. '• / The Socialist leader (M. Edouard Depreux) and the Radical leader (M. Edouard Herriot) announced that their

parties would vote for the M.R.P. candidate, but they did not disclose their intentions about joining the Government. M. Duclos. announced that the Communists were prepared to make concessions on a constitutional issue. They were agreeable to a second chamber, but only as subsidiary to an authoritative first chamber. “We agree that the President must not be a figurehead, but we are equally opposed to him having absolute power,” said M. Duclos. “M. Bidault’s election as Chief Of the Government gives France a Prime Minister, but in name only,” says the Paris correspondent of “The Times.” “M. Bidault has yet to form a Government, secure agreement on a programme -and obtain the Assembly’s approval of both. Everything points to the conclusion that the negotiations will be long and arduous ana that M. Bidault may well fail.”