Camille Pelletan

[1] Camille Pelletan was educated in Paris, passed as licentiate in laws, and studied at the École Nationale des Chartes where he was qualified as an "archiviste paléographe".

After the war of 1870-71 he took a leading place among the Radicals, as an opponent of the "Opportunist Republicans" who continued the policy of Léon Gambetta.

[1] During the Dreyfus Affair he fought vigorously on behalf of the Republican government and when the coalition known as the Bloc des gauches (Left-Wings Block) was formed he took his place as a Radical leader,[1] becoming a member of the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party at its creation in 1902, and taking place at its left-wing.

[citation needed] He was nominated as Minister of Marine in the Bloc des gauches cabinet of Émile Combes (June 1902 to January 1905), but his administration was severely criticized, notably by Jean Marie Antoine de Lanessan and other naval experts.

Camille Pelletan's name was given to the Parti radical-socialiste Camille Pelletan, a left-wing offshoot of the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party created after the 6 February 1934 crisis by Gabriel Cudenet, who opposed the participation of several Radicals to the conservative cabinet of Gaston Doumergue, which had replaced the fallen Cartel des gauches (Left-Wings Cartel).