Independent Radicals

For other uses, see Radical Party (France).

The Independent Radicals (French: Radicaux indépendants) were a center-right French political current during the French Third Republic, which refused the Radical-Socialist Party's alliance to the Left. It was formed after the fall of the first Cartel des gauches, in 1926. Starting in 1928, the group of the Independent Radicals refused to support left-wing majorities. The majority of the Chamber of Deputies between the two Cartels (from 1928 to 1932) stood on the Independent Radicals, who thus had a say in most cabinets.

In 1930, the Independent Radical Raoul Péret became Minister of Justice in André Tardieu's cabinet. He was incidentally the cause of his fall because of his personal links with the banker Albert Oustric.

In the National Assembly, the Independent Radicals sat in the Radical Left (Gauche radicale) parliamentary group, close to the centre-right Democratic Alliance. In 1936, the parliamentary group composed of most AD parliamentarians took the name Alliance of Left Republicans and Independent Radicals (ARGRI). However, Pierre-Étienne Flandin's attempt to unify these forces ultimately failed, the Radical Left group being replaced by the Democratic and Independent Radical Left (Gauche démocratique et radicale indépendante).

In the Senate, the Independent Radicals sat in the Democratic and Radical Union (Union démocratique et radicale) parliamentary group.

In 1938, André Grisoni (former vice-president of the Radical-Socialist Party and later member of Marcel Déat's National Popular Rally, RNP) and leader of the short-lived French Radical Party merged with the Comités radicaux unionistes in the Independent Radical Party (PRI).

After the Liberation of France, several deputies, including the mayor of Nice, Jean Médecin, formed an Independent Radical Party (PRI), which took part in the creation to the Rally of Left Republicans coalition.

Members

• Lucien Besset, deputy from 1928 to 1936
• Laurent Bonnevay, Minister of Justice in Aristide Briand's cabinet in 1921-22, President of the Investigation Commission on the February 6, 1934 events which led to the fall of the Second Cartel des gauches, and one of the Vichy 80.
• Gratien Candace, deputy of Guadeloupe who sat in the Left Radical parliamentary group from 1928 to 1940, vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies from 1938 to 1940.
• Pierre Cathala
• Horace de Carbuccia, founder of Gringoire in 1928, and married to the prefect of police Jean Chiappe's daughter-in-law, deputy of Corsica from 1932 to 1936.
• Adolphe Chéron, under-secretary of state of the Minister of Education in Camille Chautemps's cabinet (November 1933-1934)
• Charles Daniélou, Minister in Camille Chautemps's (1930), Théodore Steeg's (1931–32) and Édouard Daladier's cabinets (1932–33)
• Adrien Dariac (short-lived Minister of Agriculture in Alexandre Ribot's cabinet, from 9 to 12 June 1914)
• Maurice Deligne, under-secretary of state of the Minister of the Marine in André Tardieu's cabinet (1929–1930) and Minister of Public Works in Pierre Laval's three successive cabinets (1931–1932).
• Henri Falcoz, deputy of Savoie
• André Grisoni, former vice-president of the Radical-Socialist Party
• Gaston Gourdeau, deputy of the Sarthe from 1928 to 1936
• Joseph Lecacheux, deputy of the Manche who sits with the Independent Radicals from 1936 to 1940, and one of the Vichy 80.
• André Mallarmé, deputy of French Algeria, sits with the IR from 1928 to 1936, held ministerial offices
• Jacques Masteau
• Jacques Médecin, former mayor of Nice
• Paul Jourdain, senator in the Radical and Democratic Union (UDR) parliamentary group, Minister of War Veterans and of Labour
• Gaston Thomson, Minister of the Navy in Georges Clemenceau's and Maurice Rouvier's cabinets and deputy of Constantine in Algeria from 1877 to 1932.
• Constant Verlot, mayor of Sennot and deputy of Saint-Dié from 1910 to his death in 1933.

See also

• Radical Party (France)
• Sinistrisme