De Gaulle won an 80 percent Yes vote in the September 1958 referendum

Evidence

On 28 September all Algeria—women included—went to the polls for the first time “like Europeans”, casting their votes in a single electoral college. The referendum proved to be a huge personal success for de Gaulle everywhere. In France the Communists and their allies had fought hard against it, with Sartre speaking of “this constitution of contempt” and declaring that he would “rather vote for God, He is more modest.” At most both the Gaullists and their enemies reckoned on a sixty to sixty-five per cent “oui” vote in metropolitan France; but in the event it totalled over eighty per cent, on a record turnout of eighty-five per cent. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 934

Categorization

• XREF: The 79.9 percent Algerian turnout against FLN threats parallels coerced-native voting dynamics in other colonial plebiscites. — connects to: De Gaulle abandoned the Sahara as an artificial construction in September 1961.; A Somali woman held municipal office in Mogadishu by September 1950 — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1258; De Gaulle’s 1958 elections crushed Communist representation in the Assembly — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 956 (+2 more)

Related

• Algerians voted heavily for de Gaulle despite FLN abstention orders (similarity 0.88)
• De Gaulle’s 1958 elections crushed Communist representation in the Assembly (similarity 0.87)
• Algerians ratified independence almost unanimously (similarity 0.82)
• Muslim abstention voided the referendum’s Algerian mandate while Europeans voted no. (similarity 0.80)
• Algeria’s independence had become irreversible by 1959 (similarity 0.79)
• Communists and the Algiers lobby made any liberal Algerian policy impossible in the Assembly. (similarity 0.79)
• Algerians voted overwhelmingly for independence while European settlers abstained (similarity 0.79)
• The 1958 French referendum defeated Pan-Somali unionism and installed French-aligned leadership in the Côte (similarity 0.79)
• De Gaulle personally favored the association option over secession or integration. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Algerians voted heavily for de Gaulle despite FLN abstention orders #corroborates (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 934
• De Gaulle’s 1958 elections crushed Communist representation in the Assembly #corroborates (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 956
• De Gaulle’s crisis leadership won him renewed special powers #qualifies (0.30) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1139