The French statesman who does not accept the intransigence of socialism with religion: Who is Leon Blum?

(1872-1950) French writer and statesman. He is the prime minister of the 1936 Popular Front Government. Born in Paris in 1872, he died on March 30, 1950, in Jouyen-Josas. He is the son of an industrialist from Alsace. Blum, who succeeded in entering the Ecole Normale Supérieure (higher teacher's school), which trained many valuable intellectuals in France, left this school unfinished and got a degree in philosophy and law. He later entered the Council of State in 1895. Blum, who has a wide literary and legal culture, wrote articles in various literary journals between 1893-1902.

André Léon Blum (9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of socialist leader Jean Jaurès; after Jaurès's assassination in 1914, he became his successor.

In the political field, he took Clemenceau as an example. Two events played a role in his adoption of the socialist worldview. The first is his meeting with Lucien Herr, the librarian of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, who also influenced Jean Jaures, and the second is the Dreyfus affair. He became friends with Lucien Herr after leaving this school. On the other hand, Captain Pierre Dreyfus, who has been Jewish and from Alsace since 1894, was found not guilty in 1896 while he was serving his sentence in the Guvanc colony in South America under very difficult conditions for espionage. As a result of the government's opposition to a re-trial, France was divided between 1897 and 1898 as Dreyfusarians and anti-Dreyfusians, and it was during this period that Blum became a socialist. The Dreyfus consisted of intellectuals, socialists, radicals, moderate republicans, and anti-militarists who rallied around the Human Rights Association. Anti-Dreyfusists also consisted of right-wing nationalists, anti-Semitic, and staunch Catholics who united around the French Homeland Association.

Blum worked alongside Jean Jaures for the establishment of socialist unity until 1905. He continued his duty in the Council of State between 1905-1914. During World War I, he was a special adviser to the socialist minister Marcel Sembat in the "Holy Unity" government.

His entry into active politics begins with his election as a deputy in 1919 at the age of 47. Shortly after, he was elected secretary of the socialist group in parliament.

At the 1920 Tours Congress, with the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, the great majority voted to join the III International, leading to the establishment of the communist party. By the end of the Congress, the newly formed French Communist Party had 110,000 members, compared to 50,000 members of the SFIO.

While Leon Blum was respected in the party for his personality, the party organization was in the hands of Paul Faure, who was considered the steadfast general secretary. Paul Faure was a hardline Guesdist. Inside the SFIO, which remained in opposition from 1920-1930, Blum tried to balance the caucus that wanted to join the government responsibility and the General Board, which gave weight to Faure's views.

Blum was against the regime in the Soviet Union. According to him, there was no real socialism in the Soviet Union. He defended these views in various pamphlets he published and in the articles he wrote to Le Populaire (“People”). Although he was also against the French Communist Party, after the attempts of the rightists to revolt in February 1934, he cooperated with the Communist Party in order to prevent the development of fascism. SFIO in the 1936 elections. After garnering more votes than the Radicals, Blum formed the government together with the Radicals. The French Communist Party did not join the government but supported it from the outside.

According to Leon Blum, the Socialist Party should aim to join and use power when the opportunity arises, and to seize power in a democratic way when conditions allow. According to Blum, it was one thing to join power, to use it, and another to seize it. Seizing power was the only revolutionary act to overthrow the capitalist regime and aim for social change. Socialists believed that societies would come to this inevitable place as a result of the evolutionary process.

The Popular Front Government of Leon Blum, established in 1936, took important decisions in the social sphere. With the Matignon agreements, workers' wages were increased, collective agreements were accepted, working hours were reduced, and annual paid vacations were granted. The government also reorganized and controlled the French Central Bank. A sports and recreation secretariat was established. However, these reforms and measures caused big industrialists to react to Blum.

In foreign policy, while Italy and Germany provided all kinds of assistance to the civil war that was going on in Spain at that time, Blum decided not to get involved. The negative attitude of England in helping the Spanish Republicans also played a role in taking this decision, and Blum was afraid of France being alone. Thereupon, the communists began to criticize Blum, this attitude led to the breakdown of the agreement to support the government, and the government was overthrown in June 1937.

The economic policy of the Blum government, which made such extensive reforms for the first time in France, failed. There were those who found the reason for this in the financing of reforms through inflation. On the other hand, there are those who point to the lack of structural reforms in the French economy, where the capital has escaped, as the reason for the failure. Blum's second attempt to form a government in 1938 failed due to the rejection of his financial powers in the Senate.

After France was defeated by Germany in 1940, Field Marshal Petain had a special court set up in Riom in February 1942 to try those responsible for the defeat. Blum, who was among the defendants, claimed in his brilliant defense that the real culprits were the judges. The Germans decided to stop the trial, which changed direction with his defense, and sent Blum to a concentration camp in Germany.

Blum, who does not accept the intransigence of socialism with religion, defends freedom of conscience. Blum is against economic determinism. Despite its commitment to the parliamentary regime, it is in favor of strengthening the executive.