Through a frustration with the right-wing leagues and an attempt to quell the growing menace of fascism, the left-wing Popular Front, led by Socialist León Blum, was elected into power. As Blum later reflected, it was a 'reflex of instinctive defence against the dangers which threatened French Republican institutions, and liberty itself'. In the two years the Popular Front held office they were tasked with dealing with the inherited budgetary, Treasury and currency difficulties amid rising international tension. This essay aims to critically examine the extent to which the Popular Front failed to meet the public and moreover its own expectations of achieving social transformation.
The Third Republic had brought France victorious through the First Word War and Andre Tardieu had become the dominant political figure from 1929 to 1932, with the pre-war generation led by Poincaré being replaced. The franc was at unprecedented strength and the economy had never been more buoyant.
Latina: Leon Blum memorial in kibbutz Kfar Blum, I...
English: Vincent Auriol, President of France, 1951...
Robert F. BlumIt is believed by many that 1930 was the peak of economic prosperity; its index of industrial production was skyrocketing and the consumer price index reached its highest level in December 1930. However it was still a predominantly rural, ageing society with a static population. Between 1900 and 1939 'its population had increased by 3%, largely due to immigration and no country in the world had a higher proportion of people over sixty' (Jackson, p.18). Tardieu was obligated to carry out a series of long overdue reforms, incorporating advancements in technology and establishment of a welfare state. Jackson referred to it as a "period of transatlantic ideas of rationalisation an economic modernisation" (Jackson p.18). At the beginning of 1931 France, like the rest of the world, began to be affected by the depression, though it acted as more as a 'paralysis than a cataclysmic blow'. Tardieu resigned...