Within a few months of its 38th National Congress, the SFIO was embroiled in the complicated politics which accompanied the establishment of the Fourth Republic. The constitutional framework developed by the second Constituent Assembly was approved by 53 per cent of the votes in the referendum of 13 October 1946 and arrangements were then set in hand for elections to the two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the Council of the Republic, the members of which would elect the first President of the Republic for a seven-year term. The President's first task would be to choose a Premier who, once in office, would be expected to obtain the approval of the National Assembly for the government which he intended to form. At last the period of provisional government was coming to an end and there was intense competition between the parties for a secure place within the permanent system.

The Socialists had hopes that they would emerge from the National Assembly elections of 10 November as the largest party in the new house and thus be in a position to form a purely Socialist government based on a broad parliamentary alliance with other parties so the results of the poll were a great disappointment to them.