6 - Ideology, tragedy, celebrity

Summary

The Fourth Republic in France (1946–58) may have been a time of political immobilism, with constant changes of government and alliances of convenience, but it also heralded deep social change and ideological conflict. Steady economic recovery, the reconstruction of infrastructure with the help of government planning and nationalisations, new migrations, the start of the baby boom and its consequences for the education system, and the emergence of a consumer society all helped bring about intense modernisation. With the collaborationist right initially marginalised, ideological division was soon reconfigured by the Cold War, as the Resistance consensus broke up. The political and intellectual left dominated by the French Communist Party was hostile to the rise of Gaullism as an organised political force, and the centrist or social-democratic parties of government were hamstrung by France's parliamentary system. Decolonisation would be a new focus of division, with French defeat in Indochina in 1954 followed by the Algerian war of independence (1954–62). By 1958, France was close to civil war over the issue, which brought de Gaulle out of retirement to create an entirely new political structure, today's Fifth Republic.

This whole epic passed Piaf by: she was too busy with her energetic love life, regular tours of America and elsewhere, and declining health. Between 1947 and 1948, she sang at both a rally for the French Communist leader Maurice Thorez and one for the fledgling Gaullist party, the RPF (Rassemblement du peuple français). Both were strictly professional engagements. In May 1958, when the Fourth Republic was tearing itself apart, Piaf was falling in love with Moustaki, had just completed 128 performances at the Olympia before some 240,000 people and was back on medicinal drugs and sleeping tablets due to overwork. In both April and May, she collapsed on stage. Her political horizons were limited to keeping up with current affairs so as not to appear stupid in company and sharing the views of whichever man she happened to be with. She probably never voted and no polling card was found after she died. Piaf seems in fact to have shared popular cynicism about political parties.

Still, the situation is not quite so straightforward. Marc Bonel confirms that she didn't get involved in politics but adds that she was immovably royalist and Gaullist, though he means by this only that she admired de Gaulle and liked watching royal weddings.