The municipal elections of April 1953, six years after the triumph of 1947, were a disaster for the RPF. The movement lost about half the seats it had gained at its peak in 1947. De Gaulle could take no more. He issued a statement on 6 May 1953 announcing that any députés elected under his banner in 1951 would be free to enjoy the ‘poisons and delights of the system’ but they would no longer be doing it in the name of the RPF.
