Poujade and the Sickness of France

The appearance of 52 Poujadists in the French Chamber of Deputies came as a shock to all parties. Some of these deputies have since been turned out by deft parliamentary maneuvering and others have resigned; but the reality of their two and a half million votes, over 12 per cent of the total in the election of January 1956, remains. In terms of actual numbers they stood fourth—after the Communists, Socialists, and Moderates, but ahead of the Catholic MRP and the various Radical factions.

The Poujadist Union de Defense des Commercants et Artisans is a mushroom party that had contested no other general election. It was born in the summer of 1953 when, warned by a Communist colleague, Pierre Poujade defeated an attempt to...