Alliance démocratique

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The Alliance Démocratique (AD; translated "Democratic Alliance") was a liberal , republican and secular center-right - Party in the Third French Republic . It was founded in 1901 as Alliance républicaine démocratique (ARD), renamed itself in 1911 to Parti républicain démocratique (PRD), back in 1917 to ARD, in 1920 to Parti républicain démocratique et social (PRDS) and finally in 1926 AD. In addition to the Parti radical , it was the mainstay of most governments in this phase. With Émile Loubet , Armand Fallières , Raymond Poincaré , Paul Deschanel and Albert Lebrun , it provided five state presidents.

history

1901-1918

The ARD emerged from the left wing of the "moderate republicans" (Républicains modérés) . The right wing, however, formed the Fédération républicaine . Both parties had no fixed structures, but were rather looser electoral associations. Unlike the Fédération républicaine, the ARD joined forces with the Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste and independent socialists to form the Bloc des gauches , which supported the government of Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau . Waldeck-Rousseau also initiated the establishment of the ARD. Its first chairman was Adolphe Carnot .

1918-1928

After the end of the war, ARD entered into an alliance with the Fédération républicaine, Parti radical and Parti républicain-socialiste under the name Bloc national in 1919 in order to compete with common lists for parliamentary elections and to find solutions to the challenges of the post-war period. In accordance with their heterogeneous composition and weak institutionalization, the members of the party, which has since been renamed PRDS and later AD, did not form a joint parliamentary group, but instead joined up to four different parliamentary groups. It was less about differences in content than about personal relationships, age and parliamentary experience as well as increasing one's own chances of finding committee positions. In addition, the parliamentary groups in the House of Representatives did not correspond to those in the Senate. The AD and related groups used the term Gauche ("left") because they saw themselves in the tradition of the republican "left" of the 19th century. However, due to a shift in the political system to the left (the disappearance of monarchist rights and the emergence of the socialists), their position was perceived as right of center. In the government of the Bloc national, the ARD and PRDS provided the Prime Minister in 1920-21 with Georges Leygues and in 1922-24 with Raymond Poincaré. In between, Aristide Briand from the Parti radical was head of government.

After the breakup of the Bloc national, which had united both center-right and center-left forces, the PDRS / AD was in opposition from 1924 to the government of the Cartel des gauches from Parti radical et radical-socialiste, Parti républicain -socialiste and SFIO . After its failure in 1926, on the other hand, it was able to attract some of the left-wing liberals to its side and form a center-right coalition (Union nationale) with the Fédération républicaine and again provide the prime minister with Poincaré.

1928-1940

In the parliamentary elections in 1928, the AD was strengthened and was able to expand its number of seats from around 80 to over 120. After Poincaré left politics, the AD was able to provide another prime minister in 1929-30 and again in 1932 with André Tardieu . Following the parliamentary election in 1932, however, she was again in the opposition to a new edition of the Cartel des gauches . In contrast, the Union nationale was revived in 1934 , in which the AD 1934-35 with its party leader Pierre-Étienne Flandin was the head of government.

Younger forces in the AD such as Flandin and Paul Reynaud tried to strengthen their organizational structure and party discipline. The party gave itself a new statute in 1933, formed regional committees and a disciplinary committee, and subsequently stated that it had 20,000 members. Your MPs continued to act with the mentality of a traditional notable association. A common line could not be implemented, even on important political issues.

In the parliamentary elections in 1936, the left Popular Front ( Front populaire ) won and put the government under Léon Blum , the AD was in the opposition and criticized the government's economic policy. From 1938 the AD was once again involved in the government under Édouard Daladier . She supported his policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. After the Munich Agreement, its chairman Flandin even sent Hitler a telegram of congratulations. Thereupon Paul Reynaud resigned from the party, who at the time was finance minister and between March and June 1940 briefly became prime minister. During his term of office, the western campaign of the German Wehrmacht , which was devastating for France, fell . He resigned after the collapse of France and the majority in the National Assembly, including the AD, gave Marshal Philippe Pétain unlimited powers. Pierre-Étienne Flandin became Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Pétain's Vichy regime .

Resistance and the post-war period

From 1943, however, the AD was represented with Joseph Laniel in the Conseil national de la Résistance . After the end of the war, she formed the Rassemblement des gauches républicaines (RGR) with the Parti radical, the Union démocratique et socialiste de la Résistance and other, smaller parties . Most AD members who had belonged to the Resistance, however, left the party in 1945 and 1946 and joined the Parti républicain de la liberté (PRL). The remaining AD was a strictly anti-communist small party that defended Vichy collaborators and no longer played a role in elections or in parliament.

literature

  • Stefan Grüner: Between longing for unity and pluralistic mass democracy. On the understanding of parties and democracy in German and French liberalism in the interwar period. In: Democracy in Germany and France 1918-1933 / 40. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, pp. 219-249.
  • Rosemonde Sanson: Les relations entre l'Alliance démocratique et le parti radical pendant l'entre-deux-guerres, ou l'existence d'un center. In: Democracy in Germany and France 1918-1933 / 40. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, pp. 203-218.
  • Rosemonde Sanson: L'Alliance républicaine démocratique. Une formation de center (1901-1920). PUR, Rennes 2003.
  • Donald G. Wileman: The Alliance Républicaine Démocratique. The Dead Center of French Politics, 1901-47. Dissertation, York University, Toronto 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grüner: Between longing for unity and pluralistic mass democracy. 2002, p. 224.
  2. ↑ Thomas Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. German Reichstag and French Chambre des Députés during the inflation crises of the 1920s. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, p. 65.
  3. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 34.
  4. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 43.
  5. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 66.
  6. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 67.
  7. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 516.
  8. ^ Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. 2005, p. 521.
  9. ↑ Grüner: Between longing for unity and pluralistic mass democracy. 2002, pp. 239-240.
  10. ↑ Philippe Valode: L'histoire de France en 2000 dates. Acropole, 2011, p. 610.
  11. ^ Richard Vinen: Bourgeois Politics in France, 1945-1951. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995, p. 179.