With justification the hard-liners could point out that the first four years of fighting had overthrown the Fourth Republic and brought in de Gaulle and electoral franchise for Algerian Muslims; the next year had achieved "self-determination" and, now, the sixth year of the war had begun with Frenchmen firing on Frenchmen — altogether a not unsatisfactory balance. All that was required was to fight on for a few more months, a year or two at most, and de Gaulle would be forced to negotiate — on F.L.N. terms.

XREF: Connects to the broader pattern of single-party constitutions in postcolonial revolutionary movements, where symbolic supremacy clauses become decisive at bargaining tables.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1173