The Bloc des gauches ("Left-Wings' Block" or "Coalition of the Left-Wings"), aka Bloc républicain (Republican Block) was a coalition of Republican political forces created during the French Third Republic in 1899 to face the 1902 legislative elections. It supported first Emile Combes's cabinet (June 1902-January 1905), then Maurice Rouvier's cabinet (January 1905-March 1906) and finally Maurice Rouvier's cabinet (March 1906-October 1906). The Republican Coalition dissolved itself after the International Socialist Congress of Amsterdam of 1904 and the subsequent withdrawal of Socialist ministers from the government. Although the Left won the 1906 legislative election, the Socialists did not repeat their alliances with the Radicals and the Radical-Socialists and other Republican forces.

Creation of the Republican Coalition

Following the Dreyfus Affair, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau composed in June 1899 a "Republican Defense Cabinet" (gouvernement de défense républicaine), which was supported by a parliamentary majority composed of Radicals, Radicals-Socialists and Socialists. This majority decided to ally themselves in view of the 1902 elections, which they won. The Bloc des gauches was thus represented at the Chamber of Deputies by four parliamentary groups: the Democratic Alliance (Alliance démocratique, AD), the Radical Left and the Radical-Socialists and the Socialists. Under Emile Combes's leadership, the new government enacted an anti-clerical policy, passing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, and opposed itself to the nationalist movement.

"Opportunist Republicans" who opposed the alliance with the Radicals, the Radicals-Socialists and the Socialists, and, for some of them, the defense of the Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus, founded in November 1903 the Republican Federation (Fédération républicaine), which represented the Republican bourgeoisie, closely connected to business circles and opposed to social reform.

Following the International Socialist Congress of Amsterdam in 1904, the Socialists were called by Jules Guesde's Socialist Party of France (Parti socialiste de France) to quit the government. The Socialist ministers thereafter withdrew themselves from the Republican Coalition, which dissolution was completed in October 1906 with the coming of Georges Clemenceau to power.

Cabinet of the Bloc des gauches 7 June 1902 - 24 January 1905

• Émile Combes - President of the Council and Minister of the Interior and Worship
• Théophile Delcassé - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Louis André - Minister of War
• Maurice Rouvier - Minister of Finance
• Ernest Vallé - Minister of Justice
• Charles Camille Pelletan - Minister of Marine
• Joseph Chaumié - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
• Léon Mougeot - Minister of Agriculture
• Gaston Doumergue - Minister of Colonies
• Émile Maruéjouls - Minister of Public Works
• Georges Trouillot - Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs

Changes

• 15 November 1904 - Maurice Berteaux succeeds André as Minister of War

Cabinet of the Bloc des gauches, 24 January 1905 - 13 March 1906

• Maurice Rouvier - President of the Council and Minister of Finance
• Théophile Delcassé - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Maurice Berteaux - Minister of War
• Eugène Étienne - Minister of the Interior
• Joseph Chaumié - Minister of Justice
• Gaston Thomson - Minister of Marine
• Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu-Martin - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
• Joseph Ruau - Minister of Agriculture
• Étienne Clémentel - Minister of Colonies
• Armand Gauthier de l'Aude - Minister of Public Works
• Fernand Dubief - Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs

Changes

• 17 June 1905 - Pierre Merlou succeeds Rouvier as Minister of Finance.
• 12 November 1905 - Eugène Étienne succeeds Berteaux as Minister of War. Fernand Dubief succeeds Étienne as Minister of the Interior. Georges Trouillot succeeds Dubief as Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs

Cabinet of the Bloc des gauches, 12 March - 25 October 1906

• Ferdinand Sarrien - President of the Council and Minister of Justice
• Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Eugène Étienne - Minister of War
• Georges Clemenceau - Minister of the Interior
• Raymond Poincaré - Minister of Finance
• Gaston Doumergue - Minister of Labour, Commerce, and Industry
• Gaston Thomson - Minister of Marine
• Aristide Briand - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
• Joseph Ruau - Minister of Agriculture
• Georges Leygues - Minister of Colonies
• Louis Barthou - Minister of Public Works, Posts, and Telegraphs

See also

• History of the Left in France