Independent Radicals

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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 grip on 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.

At the National Assembly, the Independent Radicals gathered in the Radical Left (Gauche radicale) parliamentary group, close to the conservative Democratic Alliance. In 1936, the parliamentary group of the Democratic Alliance took the name of Alliance of Left Republicans and Independent Radicals (ARGRI). However, Pierre-Etienne 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).

At the Senate, the Independent Radicals tendency gathered itself 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, several deputies, including the mayor of Nice, Jacques Médecin, formed an Independent Radical Party (PRI), which took part in the creation to the Rally of the Republican Left coalition.

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