ABSTRACT
The reentry of General de Gaulle into the political arena at the end of the 1950s caught the Section francaise de l'Internationale ouvriere (SFIO) off guard. In the first place, modern economic and social developments were putting in question the traditional assumptions of socialism. Second, as a cadre-led party the SFIO was quite unprepared to react with equanimity to a charismatic figure who represented a substitute for political parties and wished to make them wither. Confusion reigned in the ranks of the SFIO from the moment of the first demonstrations and public demands, in mid-May, 1958, for the return of de Gaulle. The new constitution was to be submitted to the people in September. But even before the popular referendum, Mollet's somewhat premature Gaullism manifested itself in his advocating the endorsement of that constitution by the SFIO. The definitive break with Gaullism occurred at the Fifty-second National Congress of the SFIO in early July, 1960.
