ABSTRACT
At the end of the war, during which the greater part of the French Right compromised itself with Vichy, the Left in France was practically everything. Left-wing revolutionism is a living tradition in France; even archconservative parties include the word gauche in their names. Under the Fourth Republic, Mollet was five times entrusted with the task of trying to form a government, but only once, in February 1956, did he become prime minister and during his period of office the capitulation to the French settlers in Algeria and the Suez expedition took place. Serge Mallet is characterized, not only by this lack of any great reform policy, but also by a combination of practical opportunism with unchanged revolutionary doctrine. In July, Pierre Mauroy was not elected as successor of Guy Mollet as everybody had expected. Instead Alain Savary was chosen, a man of great integrity who in his twenties had been the Gaullist governor of St. Pierre et Miquelon.
