The Popular Liberal Action, simply called Liberal Action, was a French political party during the French Third Republic that represented Catholic supporters of the Republic. It operated in the center-right, primarily to oppose the left-wing Republican coalition led by Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau and Émile Combes who pursued an anti-clerical agenda designed to weaken the Catholic Church, especially its role in education. The ALP between 1901 in 1914 had its best election in 1902, with 78 deputies. It built a nationwide newspaper and propaganda network, had excellent funding. There were 1200 local committees, with 200,000 dues paying members in 1906, Giving at the strong space of any French political party.
History
The Liberal Action was founded in 1901 by Jacques Piou and Albert de Mun, former monarchists who switched to republicanism at the request of Pope Leo XIII. From the Churches perspective, its mission was to express the political ideals and new social doctrines embodied in Leo's 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum". Action libérale was the parliamentary group from which the political party emerged, adding the wordpopulaire to signify this expansion. Membership was open to everyone, not just Catholics. It sought to gather all the "honest people" and to be the melting pot sought by Leo XIII where Catholics and moderate Republicans would unite to support a policy of tolerance and social progress. Its motto summarized its program: "Liberty for all; equality before the law; better conditions for the workers." However, the "old republicans" were few, and it did not manage to regroup all Catholics, as it was shunned by monarchists, Christian democrats, and Integrists. In the end, it recruited mostly among the liberal-Catholics and the Social Catholics. The party was drawn into battle from its very beginnings, as religious matters were at the heart of its preoccupations. It defended the Church in the name of liberty and common law. Fiercely fought by the Action française, the movement declined from 1908, when it lost the support of Rome. Nevertheless, the ALP remained until 1914 the most important party onthe right. All but forgotten during World War I because of the Union sacrée, it re-emerged in 1919, with only its administrators, but still exerting an important moral influence on the Catholic electors. In 1919, the Action libérale populaire joined the Bloc national. After that, it sought to regroup, most notably in 1923 and 1927, but to no avail. The Action libérale populaire played an important historical role by integrating into political life the Catholiques ralliés and by being the first political party, right of center, to organize itself under a "modern" scheme.
