The Trust of the lefts , victorious with the legislative elections French of May 1924 then of 1932, is a coalition which gathers the radicals (which dominate the left until 1936) and the Socialistes. The first Députés Communistes which are elected into 1924 sit in the opposition. The Socialistes do not take part in the government of fear of being made tax with social treason by the Communists who would see in this alliance a collaboration with a middle-class mode. They pose even into 1932 conditions with their participation, which are rejected by the radical (the “Huygens conditions”). Also, the victory of 1924 is a simple electoral agreement and not a collaboration, dictation primarily by the common will to beat the national Bloc.

Radicals, like Aristide Briand having taken part in the governments of the national Block, the Socialists state that they refuse to control, doing nothing but support the political orientations taken in the event of success. The Trust of the lefts constitutes with the end of the year 1923 against the national Bloc.

The Trust of the lefts associates 4 groups:

• independent Radical (fringe of right-hand side of the radicals),
• the Radical socialists, unified from now on,
• republican Socialists, of the Socialist independent (Paul Painlevé),
• SFIO.

The Trust sets up a network of committees in all the country, it launches a daily newspaper ( the Daily newspaper ) and a weekly magazine ( civic Progress ). It will be reconstituted in 1932 and will gain the elections again.

In 1924 the Trust obtains the victory because of the division of the right-hand side. The left obtains 48,3% and the line 51,7% but the Trust obtains a majority of seats: 327 against 254 (Communist line and the first deputies ).

The first action is then to ask for the resignation of Alexandre Millerand shown to have missed with its role of simple referee while having taken party in favor of the national block. However the trust is very quickly disappointed since it is not their candidate Paul Painlevé but the president of the Senate Gaston Doumergue which is elected on June 13rd, following the resignation of Millerand the 11.

Taking of and the first measurements

June 15th, Edouard Herriot form a government which transfers ashes from Jean Jaurès to the the Pantheon. It takes important measures the such amnesty of the strikers of 1920, the creation of an Economic and Social Council but also the authorization for the civils servant to syndicate. He will not manage to revise the clerical projections which had been taken by the national block. He in particular must, in front of the hostility of the religious mediums, to give up removing the embassy in the Vatican which the national Block had created. The will to apply the law of separation of the Church and the State to secularity in Alsace and the Moselle remains it also dead letter. The amnesties cause, for their part, the hostility of many associations of war veterans.

In foreign policy, the trust of the lefts adopts a conciliating position by accepting the plan Dawes in August 1924 which revalues with the fall repairs that Germany owed in France. German then commits itself pouring from 1 to 2 billion mark-but in France during five years guaranteed on their railway company and their industry. Herriot promises in exchange to evacuate the Ruhr what is made in July 1925. This last decision devotes the failure of the policy of firmness with regard to Germany: the Anglo-Saxons disunited occupation of the the Ruhr and the exploitation of the area reports less than the maintenance costs of the troops (525 franc million per annum against 700 million).

Having recognized the USSR in October 1924, he proposes with the SDN the “protocol of Geneva” which would make it possible to rest French safety on an international organization who would arbitrate the conflicts. It is a failure because of the English refusal as of the end of the year.

Fall of the Trust

The trust of the lefts fails however in the financial policy. Indeed, the Socialists would like to cure the debt by the adoption of a capital tax, which frightens the holders of capital; while the radicals do not want to take severe measures. While Herriot has recourse to many advances near the banks, these last denounce it in April 1925, consequently causing the fall of its government. Follow one another then the governments of Painlevé then of Briand. In July 1926, Herriot tries to reform a government, but a true crisis in the financial circle causes the final fall of the trust: the speculation causes the fall of the franc; fall which only the return of Poincaré will cure, extremely of sound " Verdun financier" end of the national block.

Thus the Trust of the lefts died into 1926 not to have known to face the wall of the money which indicates the weight of the economy in the policy of between two wars.

Consequently, the Socialistes pass in the opposition. The Poincaré government profits from a strong majority: radical right-hand side and . One attends the return of a government of broad republican coalition, in which only the intransigent Socialists, Communists and nationalists do not take part.

The after-Trust

The line gains the legislative elections of 1928: there are 329 deputies of right-hand side against 285 for the left. As to each election the radicals are presented with the left. In 1932, the second Trust gains the elections, but there are not left majority associating radical and Socialistes. The Socialists lay down their conditions with the participation (the " cahiers" or " Huygens" conditions; name of the gymnasium in which the socialist congress had been held). The governments follow one another, directed by radicals combined with the " modérés". This parliamentary majority, distinct from the electoral majority, is fragile.

Edouard Herriot, having included/understood the lessons of sound short return of 1926, obliges to let the men of the center right take the direction of the economy thus honouring their policy with Déflation which they carry out since the beginning of the crisis of 1931. It is then a question for them of decreasing the national expenditure by a reduction of the civil servant salary thus hoping to cause a reduction of the budget deficit and a fall of the prices. This policy offered by the Herriot radical is not appropriate to the Socialists who want an increase in the purchasing power. There is thus a blocking of the economic reforms which causes, once more under the third Republic, the waltz of the ministries: follow one another thus the head of the council Edouard Herriot, Camille Chautemps, Edouard Daladier, Albert Sarraut…

This period of great instability leads to the crisis of February 6th, 1934.

Sources

• Serge Berstein and Al , History of the 20th century, the end of the world European , Paris: Hatier, 2004.