1902 French legislative election

1902 French legislative election

← 1898 27 April and 11 May 1902 1906 →
All 589 seats the Chamber of Deputies 295 seats needed for a majority
Leader Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau Jules Méline Jacques Piou (lost election) Alliance Left Bloc Parties Left Republicans Radical-Socialists Independent Radicals Socialists Progressives Conservatives Parties Liberal Action Nationalists Reactionaries Seats won 338 127 124
Prime Minister before election Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau ARD Elected Prime Minister Émile Combes Radicals

Legislative elections were held in France on 27 April and 11 May 1902. The result was a victory for the Bloc des gauches alliance between Socialists, Radicals, and the left wing of the Republicans, over the anti-Dreyfusard right wing of the Republicans, the progressistes. The Bloc des gauches had been brought together to support the "Republican Defense Cabinet" (gouvernement de défense républicaine) formed by Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau following the assault on the newly elected president, Émile Loubet, on the Longchamp Racecourse on 4 June 1899, during the Dreyfus affair.

However, Waldeck-Rousseau's own supporters (the ARD) took few seats in the election compared to the Radicals and Socialists. After the election, President Loubet invited the Radical Émile Combes to form a government, which lasted until January 1905, when the Socialists withdrew from the Bloc des gauches.^[1]