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Le Progrès ou le Bouleversement – De Gaulle’s Referendum

Reprinted from 1989 SYA Newsletter
by Carter Eltzroth FR’69

Carter Eltzroth, Class Correspondent for Class of SYA France 1969, has written an amazingly detailed “20 years after” account of his experience in Rennes for his own class news. Here are excerpts:  

Since Louis XIV, French state administration had been centralized in Paris. De Gaulle now proposed devolving some of these powers on elected officials in regions corresponding to the old provinces. In his view, such a step required an amendment, approved by popular referendum, to the Fifth Republic's constitution.  

The proposal occurred during a time of renewed student unrest and one-day general strikes by workers. During one such strike in mid-March, only M. Tanton of the French instructors and Messrs. McQuilkin and Burgin, our American teachers, were at school. Several Schoolboys were out. There were lengthy interruptions of gas and electricity.  

That evening President De Gaulle appeared on television. During his speech, he made the vote for the referendum a plebiscite on his presidency.  

Rennes was De Gaulle's first stop to promote the referendum. This was natural, since Brittany had long had a separatist movement and decentralization could restore a measure of autonomy which had been surrendered by Duchesse Anne of Brittany centuries before. The preparations for De Gaulle's trip were significant: at the Préfecture, a bed was lengthened to accommodate the General's two meters and numerous forces d'ordre were brought in from the country, including several units of riot police (CRS).  

I skipped school to watch De Gaulle's arrival in Rennes. His motorcade was an interminable procession of Citroen DS's through largely empty streets. His open car was among the last. Although it was cold and rainy, De Gaulle was standing and passed some ten feet from me. I had a movie camera and filmed his arrival and the later demonstrations around the Mairie where he made his principal address. As he arrived, the crowd obscured the cars in the motorcade, but because of his height, he was easy to make out. Two other Schoolboys found their way to the press section around the Mairie and shook De Gaulle's hand.

The crowd had a number of protesters, including Breton Socialists. They marched toward a line of CRS close to the Prefecture chanting "CRS — SS," "De Gaulle — au musée," and "ORTF [state-run national television] — vendu."  Later that night, the demonstrators went to the local office of the ORTF, the object of the manif' since it was allegedly broadcasting lies about De Gaulle's visit and was the symbol of the "French colonialization" of Brittany. Three Schoolboys participated in the ORTF demonstration.  

The Elysée Palace was clearly running scared, since five government ministers came to the Salle Omnisports in Rennes during that final week for a rally to urge support for the referendum. The left, unable to disrupt the meeting, lit trash fires the length of rue le Bastard. The CRS responded by using their matraques on students at my (host) brother Patrick's lycée technique. Half of the ORTF's evening news one night was devoted to the changes in Czechoslovakia since the Russian invasion, a subtle reminder of the dangers of unleashed leftism.  

The referendum was defeated and on the 101 following day De Gaulle left office. On the day we left le Havre on the Aurelia for our return to the U.S., Pompidou was elected president in ad: the runoff election.

While I was in Paris during 1970-71 for my 30 baccalaureat, De Gaulle died at Colombey les Deux Églises. I signed the book of mourning at De Gaulle's Paris home at avenue de Breteuil, IT marched with Parisians up the Champs Elysees in his honor and stood for hours on one of the Seine bridges watching the motorcade of black DS's bringing world leaders to his funeral at Notre Dame.