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The Constitution of Contempt* 47
chooses its victims: only democrats will suffer as a result.
This nibbling away of votes is happening in France itself. The confusion is such that
people do not know exactly for or against what or whom they are voting. At first sight
this charter is a portrait. A self-portrait of the artist. Who is this prince-president who
reigns and who answers only to God, if not de Gaulle in person?
Can we believe for a moment that he will be the nation’s choice? Will he receive his
powers from the sovereign people? Never. He is already in place and he has chosen his
supporters as voters, which means that the election is no more than a ceremony. Who
then is putting him on the throne? Well, it is France herself – an abstraction made up, of
course, of all her inhabitants. This rigid and severe entity, invisible to all, is not averse to
whispering in his ear, alone. The proof? Last Thursday, General de Gaulle had not yet
been elected. Intrigue and fear alone had made him a minister; yet, we heard him, in a
surprising speech, urge the French people, in the name of France, to vote for the
constitution. Everything is there: France has already approved the Gaullist choice; our
duty is set out. If we refuse, France will suffer and we will be villains. If we accept,
France will smile and we may be invited to the official ceremonies.
It is said that Ulysses alone had the strength to bend his bow; likewise, General de
Gaulle is the only person in the world who has the arrogance necessary to take on the role
of providential president. I do not believe in God, but if, in this election, I had to choose
between Him and the current pretender, I would be inclined to vote for God: He is more
modest. He demands all our love and our infinite respect, but I have been told by priests
that He loved us in return and that He infinitely respected the freedom of even the most
wretched. Our future monarch also demands that we respect him, but I am very much
afraid that he does not respect us. In a word, God needs people, but General de Gaulle
does not need the French people.
Or rather he does. He said so: ‘I’m in great need of your confidence.’ But it will be
enough for him if we give him our confidence once, just once, on 28 September. On that
day, if everything goes as he wishes, we will put our trust in the man who demonstrates
the greatest mistrust towards us and whose intention is to get us to adopt the Constitution
of contempt. The people’s Assembly is flanked by a reactionary Senate. It is denied the
right to choose its ministers for itself and from its own ranks. It is denied, or almost, the
right to overthrow the government that is imposed upon it. They are reducing the length
of its sessions, they reserve the licence to dissolve it or send it into recess for ill-defined
reasons. Will you, French citizens, understand that it is we, all of us, who are being
denied all these rights. The 1958 referendum reminds me of a remark by Marx which
goes back a hundred years: ‘Universal suffrage,’ he said, ‘appeared in 1848 only to be
removed immediately.’
And that is precisely where the ambiguity lies. For this Constitution seems, at first
sight, to be the internal and exaggerated image that a man has created of himself. But on
closer inspection, you can see that it is a compromise between the forces that have
brought this man to power: the feudal landowners of Algiers and major financial capital.
It is to satisfy the former that greater weight among the electorate is being given to the
France of the farmer: the farmer has full voting rights; not so the worker – but he is
compensated by being given the Légion d’Honneur. It is to satisfy the banks that
ministers will be chosen from outside the Assembly. It could not be any other way: