Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations and French political groups
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A historiographic overview
- 3 International comparisons
- 4 Notables
- 5 Bourgeois parties and the female electorate
- 6 Organized business and politics
- 7 Administration
- 8 Opposition nationale
- 9 The Parti Républicain de la Liberté
- 10 Machine à ramasser les Pétainistes? The Mouvement Républicain Populaire and the conservative electorate
- 11 The Rassemblement des Gauches Républicaines
- 12 The Rassemblement du Peuple Français
- 13 Independents and Peasants
- 14 The Groupement de Défense des Contribuables
- 15 Conclusion
- Appendix. The electoral law of 1951 and apparentements
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - The Rassemblement des Gauches Républicaines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations and French political groups
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A historiographic overview
- 3 International comparisons
- 4 Notables
- 5 Bourgeois parties and the female electorate
- 6 Organized business and politics
- 7 Administration
- 8 Opposition nationale
- 9 The Parti Républicain de la Liberté
- 10 Machine à ramasser les Pétainistes? The Mouvement Républicain Populaire and the conservative electorate
- 11 The Rassemblement des Gauches Républicaines
- 12 The Rassemblement du Peuple Français
- 13 Independents and Peasants
- 14 The Groupement de Défense des Contribuables
- 15 Conclusion
- Appendix. The electoral law of 1951 and apparentements
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Allow me to remind you of some analogies with a situation that you know well. After the elections of October 1945, following the terrible defeat of the Radical party, it seemed necessary to create a great movement capable of succeeding the Radical party … It was a question of changing name, it was a question of seeming strong. It was then that a number of small parties grouped together, some of these parties only existed on paper, others were invented for the occasion. The aim of the operation was two fold: firstly to influence the Radical party, and then to increase its importance in the eyes of the public. In spite of some problems, these two aims were achieved. The Radical party entered the Rassemblement des Gauches and the RGR obtained a very clear electoral success.
The above quotation occurs in a letter from Jean-Louis Anteriou, a young official of the Radical party to Emile Bollaert, high commissioner in Indo-China and an important figure in the same party. It reflects many beliefs about the Rassemblement des Gauches Républicaines (RGR), a loose grouping of half a dozen parties that was formed in November 1946. In particular Anteriou's remarks suggest that the RGR was just a cynical electoral ploy by the Radical party. Anteriou was not the only Radical to hold such jaundiced views: an internal party circular dismissed the new formation thus: ‘we accepted the word Rassemblement because it seems to be fashionable’.
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- Bourgeois Politics in France, 1945–1951 , pp. 173 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995