Following the 6 February 1934 crisis, President of the Council Édouard Daladier had to resign, and a new Union Nationale coalition, led by the right-wing Radical Gaston Doumergue, took power.
The Cartel des gauches, formed primarily between the Radical-Socialist Party and the SFIO, was created in 1923 as a counterweight to the conservative alliance (Bloc National), which had won the 1919 elections with 70% of the seats (the "Blue Horizon Chamber").
Formed by the conservative Radicals, the conservative-liberal Alliance Démocratique, the conservative-Catholic Fédération Républicaine, Action Liberale (issued from the right-wing members who had "rallied" themselves to the Republic), and far-right nationalists, the Bloc National had played on the red scare following the 1917 October Revolution to win the elections.
Due to the division of the right-wing, the Cartel won the elections on 11 May 1924, after the French government's failure to collect German reparations even after occupying the Ruhr.
[1] In parliament, a draft law on amnesty submitted in June 1924 was adopted at the cost of six months of a harsh parliamentary battle, whereas legislation aimed at expanding secularism generated virulent opposition and demonstrations soon captured by catholic and right-dominated associations.