Scelle Affair

The Minister of Public Instruction and Radical François Albert bypassed the usual hierarchy, appointing Scelle by decree contrary to faculty recommendations.

This sparked protests from his legal peers and the Action Française Students Federation, who decried favoritism and began demonstrations in the Latin Quarter and beyond.

[4] On March 26, Georges Calzant, Secretary General of the Fédération nationale des étudiants d'Action française, urged his supporters to prevent the lecture at all costs.

On March 28, large-scale protests blocked Scelle's lecture and triggered parliamentary debates in the French National Assembly.

The student strike spread to cities including Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Rouen, Rennes, Montpellier, Nantes, Limoges, Strasbourg, Poitiers, Grenoble, Algiers, Clermont-Ferrand, Angers, Lille, and Nancy.

Clashes between students and police outside the Faculty of Law of Paris on March 28, 1925.
A student being arrested near the Panthéon on March 28, 1925.
Students demonstrating in front of the Panthéon against Georges Scelle on March 28, 1925.
Caricature of Georges Scelle by Pem in La Liberté , April 8, 1925.