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The 'Opportunist Republicans' (French: ''Républicains opportunistes'') was a term given to a fraction of the French Republicans who considered, after the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, that the regime could only be consolidated by successive phases. Considered as center-left, they dominated French politics from 1876 to the 1890s, and were rivalized on their left first by the Radicals and then by the various Socialist parties. Despite the pejorative connotation of this label, the "Opportunists" permitted to reinforce Republican forces in the country in a time when monarchists forces were still strong.

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The "Opportunists"

See also

The "Opportunists"

Following the defeat of France against Prussia in 1871, the Government of National Defense held legislative elections in February 1871, while the Paris Commune was still proclaimed. However, those elections were won by the monarchists Orleanists and Legitimists, and it was not until the 1876 elections that the Republicans won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
Henceforth, the "Opportunists" thought that the balance of the new regime, threatened by the risk of another Bourbon Restoration, could only be insured by an implicit alliance between the rural peasants and the petty bourgeoisie from urban areas, who represented the majority of the society.
Its primary figures, who sometimes opposed themselves, included Léon Gambetta, leader of the Republican Union, Jules Ferry, leader of the Republican Left, Charles de Freycinet, who directed several governments in this period, Jules Favre, Jules Grévy or Jules Simon — because of their names, this period has also been called the "''République des Jules''" (Republic of the Jules). While Gambetta opposed colonialism as he considered it a diversion from the possibility of a revenge against the newly founded German Empire, Ferry was part of the "colonial lobby" who took part in the Scramble for Africa.
The Opportunists broke away with the Radicals who aimed at deep transformations of society, leading to strong disagreements in the Chamber of Deputies, in particular with Georges Clemenceau.
Their successors, qualified as "progressists", slowly transformed their elders' tactics in a social conservatism. At the end of the 19th century, the Opportunists were replaced by the Radicals as the primary force in French politics. Despite this, they insisted in considering themselves as members of the French Left, a phenomenon known as ''sinistrisme''.

See also

★ France during the 19th century

★ History of the Left in France

★ ''Lois scélérates'' voted by the Opportunist Republicans in 1893 after Auguste Vaillant's bomb attack on the Chamber of Deputies, and which restricted the 1881 freedom of the press laws

★ Politics of France

★ Opportunism