ABSTRACT
This chapter contextualises the riot of February 1934 through a focus on its aftermath. The focus falls between February and July 1934. For contemporaries, the import of the six fevrier endured for the remainder of the decade and into the Dark Years of the Occupation. The Communist and Socialist parties immediately denounced the leagues' action as an attempted Fascist coup. The conservative dailies had long opposed the cartelliste government and therefore capitalised on this new occasion to pillory the Left. The anti-government campaign ratcheted up tension, fostering an atmosphere of suspicion in which conspiracy theories gripped France. The right-wing press was merely trying to 'madden the crowd, make people nervous and 'drop in' the veterans'. The political climate remained tense as young men across the country pulled on coloured shirts, proffered a salute, whether the closed hand of anti-fascism or the open hand of the leagues, and slipped a knuckleduster into their pocket.
