Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau was a French Republican politician who served as the Prime Minister of France.
Alexandre Millerand was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the start of the 20th century, alongside the Marquis de Galliffet, who had directed the repression of the 1871 Paris Commune, sparked a debate in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and in the Second International about the participation of socialists in bourgeois governments.
Émile Justin Louis Combes was a French statesman and freemason who led the Lefts Bloc cabinet from June 1902 to January 1905.
Émile François Loubet was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
The Radical Party, officially the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, is a liberal and social-liberal political party in France. Since 1971, to prevent confusion with the Radical Party of the Left (PRG), it has also been referred to as Parti radical valoisien, after its headquarters on the rue de Valois. The party's name has been variously abbreviated to PRRRS, Rad, PR and PRV. Founded in 1901, the PR is the oldest active political party in France.
The Radical Party of the Left is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Socialist Party. After the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, negotiations to merge the PRG with the Radical Party began and the refounding congress to reunite the parties into the Radical Movement was held on 9 and 10 December 2017. However, a faction of ex-PRG members, including its last president Sylvia Pinel, split from the Radical Movement in February 2019 due to its expected alliance with La République En Marche in the European elections and resurrected the PRG.
Liberalism and radicalism have played a role in the political history of France. The main line of conflict in France in the long nineteenth century was between monarchists and republicans. The Orléanists, who favoured constitutional monarchy and economic liberalism, were opposed to the Republican Radicals.
The Cartel of the Left was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party, the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), and other smaller left-republican parties that formed on two occasions in 1924 to 1926 and in 1932 to 1933. The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and in 1932. The first Cartel was led by Radical-Socialist Édouard Herriot, but the second was weakened by parliamentary instability and was without one clear leader. Following the 6 February 1934 crisis, President of the Council Édouard Daladier had to resign, and a new Union Nationale coalition, led by the right-wing Radical Gaston Doumergue, took power.
Charles Camille Pelletan was a French politician, historian and journalist, Minister of Marine in Emile Combes' Bloc des gauches cabinet from 1902 to 1905. He was part of the left-wing of the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, created in 1902.
The Democratic Alliance, originally called Democratic Republican Alliance, was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta such as Raymond Poincaré, who would be president of the Council in the 1920s. The party was originally formed as a centre-left gathering of moderate liberals, independent Radicals who rejected the new left-leaning Radical-Socialist Party, and Opportunist Republicans, situated at the political centre and to the right of the newly formed Radical-Socialist Party. However, after World War I and the parliamentary disappearance of monarchists and Bonapartists it quickly became the main centre-right party of the Third Republic. It was part of the National Bloc right-wing coalition which won the elections after the end of the war. The ARD successively took the name "Democratic Republican Party", and then "Social and Republican Democratic Party", before becoming again the AD.
The Gauche Plurielle was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party, the French Communist Party, the Greens, the Left Radical Party, and the Citizens' Movement. Succeeding Alain Juppé's conservative government, the Plural Left governed France from 1997 to 2002. It was another case of cohabitation between rival parties at the head of the state and of the government. Following the failure of the left in the 2002 legislative election, it was replaced by another conservative government, this time headed by Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
The Rally of Republican Lefts was an electoral alliance during the French Fourth Republic composed of the Radical Party, the Independent Radicals, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR) and several conservative groups. Headed by Jean-Paul David, founder of the anti-Communist movement Paix et Liberté, it was in fact a right-of-center conservative coalition, which presented candidates to the June 1946, November 1946, and 1951 legislative elections.
The Republican Federation was the largest conservative party during the French Third Republic, gathering together the progressive Orléanists rallied to the Republic.
The Moderates or Moderate Republicans, pejoratively labeled Opportunist Republicans, was a French political group active in the late 19th century during the Third French Republic. The leaders of the group included Adolphe Thiers, Jules Ferry, Jules Grévy, Henri Wallon and René Waldeck-Rousseau.
The Lefts Bloc was a coalition of Republican political forces created during the French Third Republic in 1899 to contest the 1902 legislative elections. It initially supported Emile Combes's cabinet, then Maurice Rouvier's cabinet and finally Maurice Rouvier's cabinet. The Republican Coalition dissolved itself after the International Socialist Congress of Amsterdam of 1904 and the subsequent withdrawal of Socialist ministers from the government. Although the Left won the 1906 legislative election, the Socialists did not repeat their alliances with the Radicals and the Radical-Socialists and other Republican forces.
The Affair of the Cards, sometimes called the Affair of the Casseroles, was a political scandal which broke out in 1904 in France, during the Third French Republic. It concerned a clandestine political and religious filing operation set up in the French Army at the initiative of General Louis André, Minister of War, in the context of the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair and accusations of anti-republicanism made by leftists and radicals against the Corps of Officers in the French Army who accused it of being a final redoubt of conservative Catholic and Royalist individuals within French society.
The Progressive Republicans were a parliamentary group in France active during the late 19th century during the French Third Republic.
Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot was a French politician, four times Prime Minister.
The Socialist Party is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major political parties in the French Fifth Republic, along with The Republicans. It replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers' International in 1969 and is currently led by First Secretary Olivier Faure. The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
The Left in France The distinction between left and right wings in politics derives from the seating arrangements which began during the Assemblee Nationale in 1789. During the 1800s, left largely meant support for the Republic, whereas right largely meant support for the monarchy.
