Republican-Socialist Party

The Republican-Socialist Party (French: Parti républicain-socialiste) was a French socialist political party during the French Third Republic, founded in 1911 and dissolved in 1934. It was founded by socialists who refused to join the SFIO founded in 1905. The PRS was a "reformist socialist" party located between the SFIO and the Radical Socialist Party. PRS member René Viviani was the first French Minister of Labour ('Ministre du Travail et de la Prévoyance sociale', October 1906 until July 1909).^[1]

The PRS was weakened by an ideological contradiction, between socialism and reformism, in an era where the political divide was very sharp. It also suffered from an organizational division between those favouring a united and structured party, like the SFIO, or an independent party with independent personalities. It was dissolved in 1934. In 1945, an attempt failed to recreate it within the Rally of Left Republicans. Several members of the party headed French cabinets, including Viviani, Aristide Briand, Paul Painlevé, Alexandre Millerand, and Joseph Paul-Boncour.

Bibliography

• Jean-Thomas Nordmann, Histoire des radicaux, Paris, La Table Ronde, 1974.
• Serge Berstein, Histoire du Parti radical, 2 vol., Paris, Presses de la FNSP, 1982, ISBN 2-7246-0437-7
• Gérard Baal, Histoire du radicalisme, Paris, La Découverte, 1994, ISBN 2-7071-2295-5

Footnotes