WI: May 68 strikes in France last few days

First modern Wildcat strike nearly brought down the De Gaulle Government. What if it had lasted another few days?
 
I don't think de Gaulle would be toppled by the strike. He has quite a few options. First among them is a snap dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale, second is a declaration of martial law and deployment of French Army units into major disturbance zones. That should do it, since the Army is not known for its worship of Miranda or its European equivalent. Use 2-3 divisions, including armor, if required.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
I don't think de Gaulle would be toppled by the strike. He has quite a few options. First among them is a snap dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale, second is a declaration of martial law and deployment of French Army units into major disturbance zones. That should do it, since the Army is not known for its worship of Miranda or its European equivalent. Use 2-3 divisions, including armor, if required.

Indeed, for that purpose de Gaulle met with the French commander of the forces in Germany.
 
If this happens, then de Gaulle might not call the constitutional referendum in 1969 and remain in office until his death in 1970. Who would win in '70? Pompidou, VGE, Mitterrand? Someone else?
 
I'd also go for Pompidou, even if I suspect that De Gaulle would have, as in OTL, show a last-minute preference for a more true gaullist candidate. In a way, De Gaulle never forgave Pompidou the fact that Pompidou, advocating a moderate -and utlimately successful- approach of the crisis, had been more of a Chief of State that himself.

De Gaulle actually wanted, at least for a while, to take a hard stance against the strikers and -even more- the protesting students. However, I doubt he would have called the Army in, for various reasons (I won't discuss the fact that, technically, he wouldn't have to call for Martial Law. Art. 16 of the Constitution gives the President extended power during both national and constitutionnal crises) :

1° A sizeable part of French officers were disillusioned with or hostile to De Gaulle in 1968 : pro-French Algeria officers who escaped the 1961-1962 purge, opponents to the 1966 withdrawal from NATO integrated command, and even a minority of Pétain admirers. Even if anticommunism would have been the convenient excuse to unify the whole lot, tensions within the Army would have arisen very soon (it is said that Gen. Massu, commander of the French Forces in Germany, mentioned this fact, among other, to prevent De Gaulle from using armed force).

2° The French Army was, at the time, a drafted Army. Many young conscripts were, at least, sympathetic to the 1968 strikes. It would have not ended well, and, at the very least, Army efficiency would have not been at its best.

3° I doubt De Gaulle, very concerned with his legacy, would have liked to be, potentially, remembered as a man who called for liberty in 1940 and ended with the tanks against his own people in 1968.

I guess he would have done just like in OTL.

He first would have secured a deal with the Communists and the CGT (both were actually VERY opposed to continued strikes, objecting it was against the workers' interests, and prefering a nationalist like De Gaulle, more neutral towards USSR than a more atlantist President. The strikes were often led, either by leftists, or CFDT members, the CFDT being, at the time, a curious mix of radical-left-wing Christians and admirers of Yugoslavian-style self-management), with probably even more concessions than in the Grenelle Agreements (a comprehensive pack of labor laws reforms granted during the 1968 events).

Séguy, the leader of the CGT, would have called more vigorously for the end of the strikes. Historically, he was booed by Renault workers when he called for a comeback to work, but, in such a case, the Communists would have used their CGT shock troops to...convince the strikers. I don't mean, of course, that the PCF had real militias at the time. But Communist militants were (and still are) known for using physical violence against their opponents within the Left, especially Trotskytes, Maoists and Leftists (the Agents Provocateurs...) and especially in the factories.

This said, De Gaulle would have called for parliamentary elections, which he would have obviously won.

The real POD would probably be a bloody repression of students demonstrations than an extended strike.
 
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