The First Cartel Des Gauches (1924-26)
The Cartel des gauches, formed by the Radical-Socialist and the SFIO, was created in 1923 as a counterweight to the conservative Bloc National, which had won the 1919 elections with 70% of the seats (the "Blue Horizon Chamber"). Formed by the Alliance Démocratique, the Fédération Républicaine, Action Liberale (issued from the right-wing members who had "rallied" themselves to the Republic), the nationalists and a part of the radicals, the Bloc National had played on the red scare following the 1917 October Revolution to win the elections.
The left-wing coalition included four different groups: the independent radicals (the right-wing of the Radicals); the Radical-Socialist, which had united together, the Socialist Republicans and independent socialists (Paul Painlevé) and the SFIO. The Cartel organized a network of committees in the entire country, and started publishing a daily newspaper (Le Quotidien) and a weekly, Le Progrès Civique.
Due to the division of the right-wing, the Cartel won the elections on 11 May 1924, after the French government's failure to collect German reparations even after occupying the Ruhr. The left-wing obtained 48.3% of the votes, and the right-wing 51.7%, but the Cartel gained the majority of seats, with 327 against 254 (the right-wing and the first communist deputies). The new majority was led by Édouard Herriot, and broke up in 1926, with the SFIO passing into the opposition. Capital flight and the failure to retrieve the reparations created a monetary crisis, which led to the creation of a new government by the right-wing Raymond Poincaré. As soon as Poincaré formed his new government, composed of the right-wing and of the radicals, the monetary crisis ended.
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