 The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, a noted atheist, said, “I would rather vote for God,” as he would at least be more modest than de Gaulle.Mendès-France and Savary, opposed to their respective parties' support of de Gaulle, would form together, in 1960, the "Parti socialiste autonome" (PSA, Socialist Autonomous Party), ancestor of the "Parti socialiste unifié" (PSU, Unified Socialist Party).On 29 May President René Coty told parliament that the nation was on the brink of civil war, so he was "turning towards the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards the man who, in the darkest years of our history, was our chief for the reconquest of freedom and who refused dictatorship in order to re-establish the Republic.