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February 6, 1934 crisis

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The February 6, 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist demonstration organised in Paris by far-right leagues (antiparliamentarian militias), which finished by a riot on Place de la Concorde, which is located on the Right Bank of the Seine, in front of the Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly (on the left bank). It was one of the major political crisis during the Third Republic (1871-1940), and entered the popular consciousness of the socialist movement as an attempt to organize a fascist coup d'état. Thus, several anti-fascism leagues were created afterward, in an attempt to block the rise of fascism in France. After World War II (1939-45), several historians, among whom Serge Bernstein, showed that in fact if some leagues had been pushing for a coup d'état, François de La Rocque, the leader of the important Croix-de-Feu league, had progressively turned toward respect of the constitutional legality. However, if the lack of coordination among the leagues oppose the idea of a fascist conspiracy, it was a very real attempt to overthrow the Cartel des gauches ("Left-wing Coalition") government elected during the 1932 elections. Thus, the Radical-Socialist (a moderate left-wing party) president of the Council Edouard Daladier, who had replaced Camille Chautemps's (radical-socialist) government on January 27, 1934 because of accusations of corruption (the Stavisky Affair, etc.), had to resign on February 7. Daladier, who had been a popular figure, was replaced by conservative Gaston Doumergue as head of the government: it was the first time during the Third Republic that a government fell because of pressures from the street.

Contents

The 1930s crisis and the Stavisky affair

France was affected in 1931, a bit later than other countries, by the 1929 Great Depression, which had been triggered by the October 29, 1929 Wall Street crash ("Black Thursday"). The economic and social crisis affected in particular the medium classes, traditional support of the Republic (in particular of the Radical-Socialist Party. Parliamentary instability followed, with five governments between May 1932 and January 1934, which fueled the anti-parliamentarist movement.

The later also took advantage of a succession of political and financial scandals, such as the Marthe Hanau Affair (he had used his political supports to attract, with his newspaper La Gazette du Franc, savings of little bourgeoisie); the Oustric Affair (the criminal bankruptcy of banker Albert Oustric provoked the fall of André Tardieu's government in 1930, because of the involvement of his minister of Justice in it); and, finally, the immediate cause of the February 6, 1934 demonstrations, the Stavisky Affair.

This new scandal, which involved Bayonne's Crédit municipal bank, exploded in December 1933. The embezzler Alexandre Stavisky, known as le beau Sasha ("the beautiful Sasha") was linked to several radical deputies, including a minister of Camille Chautemps's government. The press later revealed that Stavisky had benefited of a 19-months remit of his trial, because the public prosecutor was president of the Council Camille Chautemps' brother-in-law. On January 8, 1934, Alexandre Stavisky was found dead. According to the police version, he had committed suicide, a thesis which provoqued general disbelief. According to the right-wing, Camille Chautemps had him assassinated in order to impede him from revealing any secrets. The press then started a political campaign against alleged governmental corruption, while the far-right demonstrated. At the end of the month, after the revelation of yet another scandal, Chautemps resigned. Edouard Daladier, another member of the radical party, succeeded to him on January 27, 1934.

Since January 9, thirteen demonstrations had already taken place in Paris. While the right-wing was trying to instrumentalize the affair to substitute to the left-wing majority elected during the 1932 elections, the far-right took advantage of its traditional themes: antisemitism, xenophobia (Stavisky was a naturalized Ukrainian Jew), hostility toward the freemasonry (Camille Chautemps was a mason dignitary), and antiparliamentarism. As historian Serge Bernstein underlined, the Stavisky Affair wasn't exceptional, neither by its seriousness nor by the personalities put in cause, but by the right-wing's will to use the opportunity to make a left-wing government resign. In this aim, it could take advantage of the fact that the radical-socialists didn't have the absolute majority at the National Assembly and were thus weak governments.

However, it was the dismissal of the police prefect Jean Chiappe which ultimately provoqued the massive demonstrations of February 6. Jean Chiappe, which was openly right-wing, was very soft toward far-right activism, which essentially took place in the streets (demonstrations, riots, attacks against the few left-wing students in the Quartier Latin by the monarchist Camelots du Roy, the youth organization of the Action Française, etc.). According to the left-wing, Chiappe's displacement was due to his involvement in the Stavisky Affair, while the right-wing denounced the result of negotiations with the radicals: the departure of Chiappe would have been exchanged against support for Daladier's new government.

The February 6, 1934 night

Forces in presence

Far-right anti-parliamentary leagues had been the main activists during the January 1934 demonstrations. Although these leagues were not a new phenomenon (the old Ligue des Patriotes had been founded by Paul Déroulède in 1882), they played an important role following World War I (1914-18), in particular when the left-wing was in power, which was the case since the 1932 legislative elections.

The riots

In the night of February 6, 1934, the leagues, which had gathered in different places in Paris, all converged toward place de la Concorde, located in front of the National Assembly, but on the other side of the Seine river. The police and guards managed to defend the strategic bridge of the Concorde, despite being the target of all sorts of projectiles. Several rioters are armed, and the police forces fired on the crowd. Disturbs would last until 2H30 AM. 16 people were killed and 2 000 injured, most of them members of the Action Française.

The far-right leagues had doubtlessly the most important role in the riots. Most of the UNC veterans avoided the place de la Concorde, creating some incidents near the Elysée palace, the president's residency. A few isolated members of the communist ARAC were also present; one public notice afterward proclaimed: "The Cartel [Cartel des gauches, the radical-socialist government] had the unarmed veterans who shouted "A bas les voleurs! Vive la France!" ("Down with the robbers, long life France!") killed".

While on the right side of the Seine (north, on the place de la Concorde), the police's charges contained with difficulty the rioters, the Croix-de-feu had chosen to demonstrate in the south. The Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly, is much more difficult to defend on this side, but the Croix-de-feu limited themselves to surrounding the building without any major incident before splitting. Because of this attitude, they earned afterward the pejorative nickname of Froides Queues in the far-right press. Contrary to the other leagues which were intent on overthrowing the Republic, it thus seemed that colonel de la Rocque finally decided to respect the constitutional legality.

In the National Assembly, the right-wing attempts to take advantage of the riots to push the Cartel des gauches government to resign. But the left-wing gathered around president of the Council Edouard Daladier. The session was lifted after blows exchanged between left and right-wing deputies.

Consequences of the February 6, 1934 riots

Daladier's resignation and the formation of a National Union government

During the night, president of the Council Edouard Daladier took the first measures to obtain the restablishment of public order. He didn't excluded the possibility to declare the state of emergency, although he finally decided against it. However, the next day the justice and the police resisted to his directives. Moreover, most of his ministers and his party withdrew their support. Thus, Daladier finally chose to resign. This was the first time, during the Third Republic, that a government had to resign because of pression from the streets.

The crisis was finally resolved with the formation of a new government under the direction of former president of the Republic (1924-31) Gaston Doumergue, a conservative which the leagues seemed to accept. Qualified as a "National Union government", it included most important figures of the parliamentary right-wing, among whom André Tardieu, Louis Barthou and Louis Marin, although several radical-socialists or Philippe Pétain, who was named minister of War, were also part of it. Pétain would then be the leader of the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II.

Toward the union of the left-wing

Following the February 6, 1934, the left-wing was convinced that a fascist conspiracy had taken place, and that it had been temporarily blocked. The importance of the antiparliamentarist activity of far-right leagues was undeniable. Some of them, such as the Francisque, had copied all of their characteristics from the Italian Fascio leagues which had marched on Rome in 1922, thus leading to the instauration of the fascist regime. If historian Serge Bernstein showed that colonel de la Rocque had probably be convinced of the necessity of respecting constitutional legality, this wasn't true of all members of his Croix-de-feu movement, which also shared, at least superficially, some characteristics of fascist leagues, in particular its militarism and fascination for parades.

On February 9, 1934, a socialist and communist counter-demonstration took place while Daladier was being replaced by conservative Gaston Doumergue. Nine people were killed during incidents with the police forces. On February 12, the CGT trade union (socialist at the time) and the CGTU (communist) decided to call for a day of general strike, while the SFIO socialist party and the communist party decided to call for a separate demonstration. However, at the initiative of the popular base of these movements, the demonstrations finally united themselves in one. Thus, this day marked a first and shy connection between the socialists and the communists. It had in germ the antifascist union between both marxist parties, opposed since the 1920 Tours Congress split, which led to the 1936 Popular Front (composed by radicals and socialists and suppoprted without participation by the communist party). This antifascist union was in line with Staline's directives to the Comintern, who had asked to the European communist parties to ally with other left-wing parties, including social-democrats and socialists, in order to block a contagion of fascists and anti-communists regimes in Europe.

The right-wing's radicalization

Despite the fears of the left-wing, the February 6, 1934 crisis wasn't a fascist conspiracy. The far-right leagues weren't enough united and, for most of them, lacked any specific objectives. However, their violent methods, their paramilitary appearances, their cult of leadership, etc., explained why they have often been assimilated to fascism. Beyond these appearances, however, and their will to see the parliamentary regime replaced by an authoritarian regime, historians René Rémond and Serge Bernstein do not consider that they had a real fascist project. On the contrary, others historians, such as Michel Dobry or Zeev Sternhell, considered them as being fully fascists leagues. Brian Jenkins claimed it was pointless to look for a fascist essence in France and preferred to establish comparisons, which led according to him to a clear convergence between Italian fascism and the majority of the French leagues, in particular the Action Française (in other words, Jenkins think that fascism is an Italian historic phenomenon, but also maintains that a fascistoid movement existed in France, but that it shouldn't be called "fascism" as this name should be reserved to Mussolini's movement).

Following the February 6, 1934 crisis, the parliamentary right also began to get closer to the counterrevolutionary far-right. Several of its leaders would lose any trust in parliamentary institutions. This radicalization of the right-wing would accelerate after the election of the Popular Front in 1936 and the Spanish Civil War (1936-45).

In the perspective of the far-right, February 6 did represent a failed opportunity to overthrow the Republic (la gueuze), which only presented itself again in 1940 following the étrange défaite (Marc Bloch), that is the 1940 defeat during the Battle of France against Germany. This deception prompted several far-right members to radicalize themselves, turning toward fascism or national-socialism.

References

See also

External links

 

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