Coups and Instability: Fructidor and Floréal

The Directory repeatedly overrode elections it disliked. In 1797 royalists and constitutional monarchists made major gains in the councils. On 18 Fructidor Year V, 4 September 1797, three Directors, backed by troops sent by Bonaparte under General Augereau, annulled the elections in dozens of departments, purged many deputies and deported some to French Guiana.

The next year, when left-wing Jacobins did well, the coup of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798) blocked many of them from taking their seats. In June 1799 the councils in turn forced out several Directors. Meanwhile the regime faced renewed war, unpopular forced loans and a harsh law on hostages targeting relatives of émigrés. These swings, called the 'see-saw' policy, alternately alienated right and left. By 1799 many concluded that only a stronger executive could bring stability.