1902 French legislative election explained

Country:French Third Republic
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1898 French legislative election
Previous Year:1898
Election Date:27 April and 11 May 1902
Next Election:1906 French legislative election
Next Year:1906
Seats For Election:All 589 seats the Chamber of Deputies
Majority Seats:295
Image1:File:P. Waldeck-Rousseau.jpg
Leader1:Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau
Alliance1:Left Bloc
Party1 Name:no
Seats1:338
Color1:C96765
Leader2:Jules Méline
Party2 Name:no
Alliance2:Progressives
Seats2:127
Color2:8080C0
Image3:file:Jacques Piou (Agence Meurisse, 1913) (cropped and adjusted).jpg
Leader3:Jacques Piou (lost election)
Color3:22427C
Alliance3:Conservatives
Seats3:124
Prime Minister
Before Election:Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau
Before Party:ARD
After Election:Émile Combes
After Party:Radicals

Legislative elections were held in France on 27 April and 11 May 1902. The result was a victory for the Bloc des gauches alliance between Socialists, Radicals, and the left wing of the Republicans, over the anti-Dreyfusard right wing of the Republicans, the progressistes. The Bloc des gauches had been brought together to support the "Republican Defense Cabinet" (gouvernement de défense républicaine) formed by Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau following the assault on the newly elected president, Émile Loubet, on the Longchamp Racecourse on 4 June 1899, during the Dreyfus affair.

However, Waldeck-Rousseau's own supporters (the ARD) took few seats in the election compared to the Radicals and Socialists. After the election, President Loubet invited the Radical Émile Combes to form a government, which lasted until January 1905, when the Socialists withdrew from the Bloc des gauches.[1]

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Notes and References

  1. Gildea, R., Children of the Revolution, London, 2008, pp. 278-282