Election Prelude

Aristide Briand, seven times Premier, opened the electoral campaign with a speech at Carcassonne, Department of Aude, South France.

He reviewed the whole of France's recent foreign and domestic policy, asserted that he hoped to be returned to power, called for a union of Republicans, Democrats and Socialists (a left bloc excluding the Communists), challenged the Bloc National (Millerand, Clemenceau, Poincare, etc.).

He also defended France from charges of militarism. Said he: "She has only to exercise in the eyes of the world her true force, which is moral and not military."