WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was 60 years ago tomorrow that France voted in a referendum to allow the people of Algeria to determine their own future, with the likelihood being that the Algerians would then vote for independence. The referendum was decisive. On a turnout of more than 90% in France, the vote was 75% in favour of self-determination, while in Algeria some 69.5 % voted the same way, though the turnout was less due to a boycott.

WHY A REFERENDUM?

THE French people had been used to referendums, though their usage since the Revolution had mainly been under the name of “consultations”.

After the Second World War, however, France’s leader General Charles de Gaulle used two referendums to legitimise his Fourth Republic that lasted from 1946 to 1958. In that latter year he had arguably his greatest political triumph when his constitution for the Fifth Republic was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum, gaining 82.6% of the votes on a turnout of 80%.

That referendum, and much of French politics in the 1950s, was conducted against the background of ever-growing trouble in Algeria, France’s principal colony on the Mediterranean coast of Africa.

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Around one million French colonials, known as either “colons” or “pieds noirs” (black feet) controlled a mainly Muslim native population of around nine million. Algerian nationalists led by the National Liberation Front (FLN) had been campaigning for self-determination for decades before war erupted in 1954.

It was a particularly bloody conflict of terrorism and guerilla warfare with anywhere between 350,000 and one million people killed, and many more made refugees by the horrific violence committed by both sides. The effects on France were disastrous, causing the collapse of the Fourth Republic and the institution of the Fifth which gave the president strengthened powers. His re-election as president also gave him a mandate to stop the war spilling from Algeria into France.

Though hated for it by the “colons”, President de Gaulle decided that the war-sickened people of France should be asked whether Algeria should have self-determination. The question was: “Do you approve the bill submitted to the French people by the president of the Republic and concerning the self-determination of the populations of Algeria and the organisation of the public authorities in Algeria prior to self-determination?”

The referendum on January 8, 1961 decided the issue. The FLN, seeking full independence, attacked some polling stations, but overall the voting passed off peacefully.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARDS?

DE Gaulle thanked the people for showing “good sense” and with such an overwhelming majority, he was able to push ahead with negotiations with the FLN, the war ending with the Evian Accords which promised a full independence referendum in Algeria. The people of France backed De Gaulle’s plan in another referendum in April 1962. By that time, the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS), an extremist organisation of French settlers determined to fight the independence movement, had been founded by the former military commander in Algeria, General Raoul Salan.

He led an unsuccessful coup in Algiers in April 1961 and later the OAS would carry out several bomb attacks in mainland France. One of their failed attempts to assassinate President de Gaulle was fictionalised by Frederick Forsyth in the novel and film The Day of The Jackal.

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On July 1, 1962, the independence referendum itself took place in Algeria, with 99.7% voting in favour. Hundreds of thousands of “colons” and Algerians fearing reprisals fled to France and the ramifications of that refugee crisis are still being felt.

COULD IT HAPPEN HERE WITH THE END OF THE UNION?

THERE is growing evidence that English nationalism is a genuine phenomenon and it’s not just the far-right who are seriously questioning whether England should continue in the Union.

In his recent Sunday National article, Professor Sir Tom Devine wrote: “A number of years ago, I penned a newspaper article which speculated that if the Union did end, England rather than Scotland might be the leading assassin. That may no longer be mere speculation.”

France may have fought the Algerian War for far too long and was forced to the negotiating table, but De Gaulle’s appeal over the head of politicians directly to the people of France was a master stroke that led to Algerian independence, albeit with many issues unresolved.

Sadly there is no-one in the UK Government of his calibre, no-one who is able to see that asking the people of England for their views on the future of the Union might solve all our nations’ problems.

Does England want the Union? Time to ask.