Parti socialiste-S.F.I.O.

The French Section of the Workers' International (French: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a major social democratic political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representative to the Second International, merging the Marxist Socialist Party of France led by Jules Guesde and the possibilist French Socialist Party led by Jean Jaurès, who became the SFIO's leading figure. Electoral support for the party rose from 10 percent in the 1906 election to 17 percent in 1914, and during World War I it participated in France's national unity government, sacrificing its ideals of internationalist class struggle in favor of national patriotism, as did most other members of the Second International. In 1920, the SFIO split over views on the 1917 Russian Revolution; the majority became the French Communist Party, while the minority continued as the SFIO. In the 1930s, mutual concern over fascism drew the communists and socialists together, prompting them to form the Popular Front. The coalition won the 1936 election and formed a government under SFIO leader Léon Blum, which lasted until 1938. After the outbreak of World War II and German conquest of France in 1940, the SFIO was banned, and many of its members took part in the Resistance. The SFIO was part of France's tripartisme government from 1944 to 1947, but after the war faced a resurgent Communist Party, which achieved a higher share of the vote in every election for the next three decades. From 1956 to 1957, SFIO leader Guy Mollet served as prime minister, but the party continued its period of decline and disunity. In 1969, the present Socialist Party of France was formed from a merger of the SFIO and smaller parties. Between 1909 and 1920, the SFIO published the newspaper L'Humanité. In French politics, it affiliated with the Left Cartel (1924–1926, and 1934), the Popular Front (1936–1938), the Tripartisme (1944–1947), and the Third Force (1947–1958). Internationally, the party was first affiliated with the Second International (1905–1916), then the Labour and Socialist International (1923–1940), and finally the Socialist International (1951–1969). The SFIO's symbol was a red and black circle with the Three Arrows.