it was presumably out of personal regard for a former free france comrade that hettier de boislambert merely abstained in the investiture vote for prime minister rené pleven on 24 july 1951. he was nevertheless open in his hostility to attempts to govern with a so-called third force coalition government, voting against the composition of the government on 11 august 1951. the next month he backed what became known as the "marie and barangé laws", which provided for financial support for children educated in private schools and was bitterly opposed by left wingers and by secularists. (most of the private schools affecged were church schools.) on 13 december 1952 he voted against parliamentary endorsement of the treaty which confirmed french membership of the ceca (""european coal and steel community""). as the rpf party began to break apart under the pressure of its own internal contradictions, hettier de boislambert did not join the 27 party members in the assembly who voted on 6 march 1952 to support the appointment as prime minister of antoine pinay. he chose to abstain in the vote to approve the composition of the pinay government. shortly after this charles de gaulle, who continued to direct the rpf from his lofty position above and beyond the political fray from his home in colombey-les-deux-églises, effectively released the party's members in the assembly from their residual bonds of party loyalty and hettier de boislambert threw in his lot with the short-lived party which was in some respects a successor to the rpf. as the uras dissolved he joined the social republicans (cnrs). the fact that he was a member successively of three parties during his time as a member of the assemblée nationale masks an essential continuity in hettier de boislambert's six year parliamentary career, since each of the three parties was, in is different way, the de facto gaulliste party of the moment, albeit operating within a parliamentary constitutional structure which the gaullistes repudiated. on 6 january 1953 hettier de boislambert voted in support of the appointment as prime minister of rené mayer, and on 27 may 1953 he took part in the investiture debate for paul reynaud. he never concealed the fact that his voting actions were driven by his continuing and absolute backing for constitutional reform, and on this point he had been encouraged by undertakings that reynaud was understood to have provided. however, reynaud was a committed proponent of european union, and his advocacy of a european army quickly irritated hettier de boislambert. he insisted that reynaud's presentation of a choice between a european army and a german army offered a false dilemma. drawing on his experiences as governor of rheinland-pfalz he pointed out that the west german "without us" reaction to the idea of a european army was not a cry of cowardice but a cry of prudence. in respect of the treaty establishing the european defence community, hettier de boislambert called for certain additional safeguards: to be sure, "stability and government continuity [were] indispensable", but it could not be possible to impose them at too high a price. he decided to abstain in the vote following the debate. he also abstained on 4 june 1953 in the vote to back the prime ministerial appointment of pierre mendès france. by way of contrast, he voted in support of joseph laniel's appointment, but the deteriorating situation in indochina later led him to withdraw his support from the laniel government.