Denmark and the Gaullist vision : government and civil society : reactions to the fifth republic and its European policies, 1958-1969

Abstract

What follows is a study of the reactions in Denmark to the creation of the Fifth French Republic and its European projects under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle in the period 1958 to 1969. Despised and admired, only a few statesmen have been as central as de Gaulle in the construction of the present French Republic and the working out of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of today’s European Union (EU). The Fifth Republic builds largely upon his constitutional visions, and the major non-socialist political family in France, the neo-Gaullists, consider itself his heir. General de Gaulle had the political responsibility for completing the transformation of France from a colonial empire into a leading EEC actor in the early 1960s; for ending the Algerian W ar (1954-1962); for turning France into a nuclear power (1960); and for provoking at least a couple of crises within the EEC and NATO (1963 and 1965-66), Politics and culture in post-war Europe were strongly permeated by the Cold W ar and the cleavage between the Soviet Union and the United States. In virtue of France’s pivotal role in the emerging Western collaboration, however, political observers took a considerable interest in French politics and society. Particularly the Gaullist visions and politics provoked interesting debates and deliberations about Western identities and internal conflicts - about Western solidarity and the pursuit of national interests.