Collapse
The reshuffle, in favour of the CSV, appeased the right-wing dissidents and the two-fifths of the population that had voted the CSV. However, it could not even paper over the cracks of the coalition, and the relationship deteriorated over the winter of 1946-7. On 20 January 1947, Pierre Krier, the leader of the LSAP, died. Unable to hold together the coalition without one of its leading lights, the government handed in its resignation on 13 February. Its replacement was another Dupong-led coalition, but including only the CSV and GD. The LSAP would have to wait until 1951 to have another chance at governing. As of 2006, the Communists are still waiting.
Read more about this topic: National Union Government (1945)
Famous quotes containing the word collapse:
“At the crash of economic collapse of which the rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are loaded down with curses.”
—Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919)
“I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I’ll be all right; I’ve got a few veg.”
—Margaret Drabble (b. 1939)
“The world was a huge ball then, the universe a might harmony of ellipses, everything moved mysteriously, incalculable distances through the ether.
We used to feel the awe of the distant stars upon us. All that led to was the eighty-eight naval guns, ersatz, and the night air-raids over cities. A magnificent spectacle.
After the collapse of the socialist dream, I came to America.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)