During the Third Republic, the Palais Bourbon was the home of the primary institution of the French government. The Assembly selected the President of France, and controlled finances and foreign policy. Its membership divided between constitutional monarchists and conservatives, who sat to the right of the Chamber as seen from the podium, and the moderate and radical republicans and later socialists, who sat to the left. The chamber saw many eloquent and spirited debates between the leaders of the parties, and sometimes turmoil. In 1898, during the Dreyfus affair, the socialist leader Jean Jaurès was struck by a monarchist deputy while giving a speech in the Chamber, and a bomb placed by an anarchist exploded in the gallery in 1890. The Assembly declared war in 1914 and celebrated victory in 1918, but was badly divided in the 1930s and was unable to manage the economic crisis and the approach of World War II.