Croix-de-Feu
Encyclopedia
Croix-de-Feu was a French
far right league of the Interwar period
, led by Colonel François de la Rocque
(1885–1946). After it was dissolved, as were all other far right leagues during the Popular Front
period (1936–38), de la Rocque replaced it with the Parti social français (PSF).
— those who had been awarded the Croix de guerre 1914-1918
. It was founded on 26 November 1927 by Maurice d'Hartoy
, who led it until 1929; the honorary presidency was awarded to writer Jacques Péricard. Also in 1929, the movement acquired its own newspaper, Le Flambeau. At its creation, the movement was subsidized by wealthy perfumer François Coty
, who supported Mussolini
, and hosted in Le Figaro
s building.
It benefited from the Roman Catholic Church
's 1926 proscription of the Action Française
which prohibited practicing Catholics from supporting the latter. Many conservative
Catholics became members of the Croix-de-Feu instead, including Jean Mermoz
and the young François Mitterrand
.
François de La Rocque
, who took over in 1930, the Croix-de-Feu took their independence from François Coty, leaving the Figaros building for the rue de Milan (Milan Street) in Paris. It organized popular demonstrations in reaction to the Stavisky Affair
, hoping to overthrow the Second Left-wing Coalition
government. De la Rocque quickly became a hero of the far right
, opposed to the influences of Socialism
and "hidden Communism
", but skeptical about becoming counterrevolutionary
.
Under de la Rocque, the movement advocated a military effort against the "German danger," supporting corporatism
and an alliance between Capital and Labour. It enlarged its base, creating a number of secondary associations, thus including non-veterans in its ranks. To counter the monarchist Action française
and its slogan Politique d'abord! (First Politics!), de la Rocque invented the motto Social d'abord! (First Social!). In his book, Le Service Public (Public Service, published in November 1934), he argued in favour of a reform of parliamentary procedures; cooperation between industries according to their branches of activities; a minimum wage
and paid holidays; women's right to vote (also upheld by the monarchist Action française, who considered that women, often devout, would be more favorable to their conservative thesis), etc. The Croix-de-feu and its satellite organizations gradually took on momentum, reaching 500 members in 1928, 60,000 end of 1933, 150,000 in the months following the 6 February 1934 riots and 400,000 end of 1935.
The Croix-de-feu did not participate to the 1932 demonstrations organized by the Action française and the far-right leagues Jeunesses Patriotes
against the payment of the debt to the United States. It did take part in the massive rally of 6 February 1934
which led to the toppling of the Second Cartel des gauches
(Left-Wing Coalition), but de la Rocque refused to engage in rioting (although parts of the Croix-de-Feu disagreed with him). They had circled the seat of the parliament (the Palais Bourbon
), and remained grouped, several hundreds meters away from the others rioting leagues. As one of the most important paramilitary associations, and because of its nationalist position, the Croix-de-feu and de la Rocque were considered by the left to be among the most dangerous of the imitators of Mussolini and Hitler. However, as a result of de la Roque's actions during the riots, they subsequently lost prestige among the far-right, before being dissolved by the Popular Front
government on 18 June 1936.
(PSF) as a successor to the dissolved league. Moderate estimates place the membership for the PSF at 500,000 in the buildup to World War II
— making it the first French conservative mass party ; although its slogan
Travail, Famille, Patrie ("Work, Family, Fatherland") was later used by Vichy France
to replace the Republican slogan Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
, the party had remained eclectic. The party disappeared with the Fall of France, without being able to profit from the immense popularity.
a presidential regime to end the instability of the parliamentary regime.
an economic system founded upon "organised professions" (corporatism).
a social legislation inspired by Social Christianism.
Historians now consider that he paved the way to the French Christian democratic parties: the post-war Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and Gaullist Rally for France.
movement: if the uniformed rightist "Leagues
" of the 1930s didn't develop into classical Fascism, it was because they represented a shading from conservative right-wing nationalism to extremist fascism—in membership and ideology—that was distinctive to French inter-war society.
Most contemporary French historians (René Rémond
, Pierre Milza
, François Sirinelli in particular) do not classify the "leagues" of the 30s as a native "French Fascism", particularly the Croix-de-Feu. The organisation is described by Rémond as completely secret in aims with an ideology "As vague as possible." Rémond, most famous and influential of these post-war historians, distinguishes "Reaction" and the far-right from revolutionary Fascism
as an import into France which had few takers. In the 1968 third edition of "La droite en France", his major work he defines fascism in Europe as a "revolt of the declasses, a movement of those on half-pay, civilian and military. Everywhere it came to power through social upheavals ... Although with a handful of fascists [in 1930s France], there was a minority of reactionaries and a great majority of conservatives." Amongst these he places much smaller groups like the Faisceau
, a tiny minority compared with the Croix-de-Feu, whose membership peaked at over a million.
Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell
, on the other hand, has argued for not only the existence of a native French fascism, but for groups like the Cercle Proudhon
of the nineteen-teens being amongst the more important ideological breeding grounds of the movement. He, though, does not include the Croix de Feu in this category: "The 'centrist' right always had its own shock troops that served its own purposes, and took good care that they did not become confused with the fascists." Sternhell, interested in the Fascism as a "anti-material revision of Marxism" or an anti-capitalist, cultish, corporatist extreme nationalism, points out that groups like the Jeunesses Patriotes
, the revived Ligue des Patriotes
and the Croix de Feu were derided by French fascists at the time. Fascist leaders in France saw themselves as destroyers of the old order, above politics, and rejecting the corruption of capitalism. To them the Leagues were a bulwark of this corrupt regime. Robert Brasillach
called them "old cuckolds of the right, these eternal deceived husbands of politics.." and claimed that "the enemies of national restoration are not only on the left but first and foremost on the right."
Other scholars -- Robert Soucy
and William Irvine, notably—argue that the La Rocque and the Croix de Feu were, in fact, fascist, and a particularly "French" fascism. De la Rocque, however, if tempted by a paramilitary aesthetic and initially advocating collaboration
with the Germans during WWII, finally came out against the more radical supporters of Nazi Germany
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
far right league of the Interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, led by Colonel François de la Rocque
François de la Rocque
François de La Rocque was leader of the French right-wing league named the Croix de Feu from 1930–1936, before forming the more moderate Parti Social Français , seen as a precursor of Gaullism.- Early life :François de La Rocque was born on 6 October 1885 in Lorient, Brittany, the third son to a...
(1885–1946). After it was dissolved, as were all other far right leagues during the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
period (1936–38), de la Rocque replaced it with the Parti social français (PSF).
Beginnings (1927-1930)
The Croix-de-Feu were primarily a group of veterans of the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
— those who had been awarded the Croix de guerre 1914-1918
Croix de guerre 1914-1918 (France)
The Croix de guerre 1914–1918 is a French military decoration.-Creation:Soon after the outbreak of World War I, French military officials felt that a new military award had to be created...
. It was founded on 26 November 1927 by Maurice d'Hartoy
Maurice d'Hartoy
Maurice d'Hartoy , whose real name was Mauritius-Lucien Hanot, also known as Lieutenant d’Hartoy, was a soldier, politician and French writer....
, who led it until 1929; the honorary presidency was awarded to writer Jacques Péricard. Also in 1929, the movement acquired its own newspaper, Le Flambeau. At its creation, the movement was subsidized by wealthy perfumer François Coty
François Coty
François Coty was a French perfume manufacturer, newspaper publisher, and founder of the fascist league Solidarité Française...
, who supported Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, and hosted in Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
s building.
It benefited from the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
's 1926 proscription of the Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
which prohibited practicing Catholics from supporting the latter. Many conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
Catholics became members of the Croix-de-Feu instead, including Jean Mermoz
Jean Mermoz
Jean Mermoz was a French aviator, viewed as a hero by many in both Argentina and his native France, where many schools bear his name...
and the young François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
.
Under La Rocque (1930-1936)
Under Lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
François de La Rocque
François de la Rocque
François de La Rocque was leader of the French right-wing league named the Croix de Feu from 1930–1936, before forming the more moderate Parti Social Français , seen as a precursor of Gaullism.- Early life :François de La Rocque was born on 6 October 1885 in Lorient, Brittany, the third son to a...
, who took over in 1930, the Croix-de-Feu took their independence from François Coty, leaving the Figaros building for the rue de Milan (Milan Street) in Paris. It organized popular demonstrations in reaction to the Stavisky Affair
Stavisky Affair
The Stavisky Affair was a 1934 financial scandal generated by the actions of embezzler Alexandre Stavisky. It had political ramifications for the French Radical Socialist moderate government of the day...
, hoping to overthrow the Second Left-wing Coalition
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
government. De la Rocque quickly became a hero of the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
, opposed to the influences of Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and "hidden Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
", but skeptical about becoming counterrevolutionary
Counterrevolutionary
A counter-revolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part...
.
Under de la Rocque, the movement advocated a military effort against the "German danger," supporting corporatism
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
and an alliance between Capital and Labour. It enlarged its base, creating a number of secondary associations, thus including non-veterans in its ranks. To counter the monarchist Action française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
and its slogan Politique d'abord! (First Politics!), de la Rocque invented the motto Social d'abord! (First Social!). In his book, Le Service Public (Public Service, published in November 1934), he argued in favour of a reform of parliamentary procedures; cooperation between industries according to their branches of activities; a minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
and paid holidays; women's right to vote (also upheld by the monarchist Action française, who considered that women, often devout, would be more favorable to their conservative thesis), etc. The Croix-de-feu and its satellite organizations gradually took on momentum, reaching 500 members in 1928, 60,000 end of 1933, 150,000 in the months following the 6 February 1934 riots and 400,000 end of 1935.
The Croix-de-feu did not participate to the 1932 demonstrations organized by the Action française and the far-right leagues Jeunesses Patriotes
Jeunesses Patriotes
The Jeunesses Patriotes were a Fascist-inspired street brawlers group of France, recruited mostly from university students and financed by industrialists founded in 1924 by Pierre Taittinger...
against the payment of the debt to the United States. It did take part in the massive rally of 6 February 1934
6 February 1934 crisis
The 6 February 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the seat of the French National Assembly...
which led to the toppling of the Second Cartel des gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
(Left-Wing Coalition), but de la Rocque refused to engage in rioting (although parts of the Croix-de-Feu disagreed with him). They had circled the seat of the parliament (the Palais Bourbon
Palais Bourbon
The Palais Bourbon, , a palace located on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde, Paris , is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government.-History:...
), and remained grouped, several hundreds meters away from the others rioting leagues. As one of the most important paramilitary associations, and because of its nationalist position, the Croix-de-feu and de la Rocque were considered by the left to be among the most dangerous of the imitators of Mussolini and Hitler. However, as a result of de la Roque's actions during the riots, they subsequently lost prestige among the far-right, before being dissolved by the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
government on 18 June 1936.
The Parti Social Français (1936-1940)
François de la Rocque then formed the French Social PartyFrench Social Party
The French Social Party was a French nationalist political party founded in 1936 by François de La Rocque, following the dissolution of his Croix-de-Feu league by the Popular Front government...
(PSF) as a successor to the dissolved league. Moderate estimates place the membership for the PSF at 500,000 in the buildup to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
— making it the first French conservative mass party ; although its slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
Travail, Famille, Patrie ("Work, Family, Fatherland") was later used by Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
to replace the Republican slogan Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity ", is the national motto of France, and is a typical example of a tripartite motto. Although it finds its origins in the French Revolution, it was then only one motto among others and was not institutionalized until the Third...
, the party had remained eclectic. The party disappeared with the Fall of France, without being able to profit from the immense popularity.
During World War II
During the occupation of France, La Rocque joined the Resistance but was nonetheless the subject of considerable controversy immediately after the war.Political heritage
The Parti Social Français (PSF) of François de La Rocque was the first major conservative party in France (1936–1940). He advocated :a presidential regime to end the instability of the parliamentary regime.
an economic system founded upon "organised professions" (corporatism).
a social legislation inspired by Social Christianism.
Historians now consider that he paved the way to the French Christian democratic parties: the post-war Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and Gaullist Rally for France.
Continuing debate over the Croix-de-Feu
Some historians have argued that the Croix-de-Feu were a distinctly French variant of the European FascistFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
movement: if the uniformed rightist "Leagues
Far right leagues
The Far right leagues were several French far right movements opposed to parliamentarism, which mainly dedicated themselves to military parades, street brawls, demonstrations and riots. The term ligue was often used in the 1930s to distinguish these political movements from parliamentary parties...
" of the 1930s didn't develop into classical Fascism, it was because they represented a shading from conservative right-wing nationalism to extremist fascism—in membership and ideology—that was distinctive to French inter-war society.
Most contemporary French historians (René Rémond
René Rémond
-Biography:Born in Lons-le-Saunier, Rémond was the Secretary General of Jeunesses étudiantes Catholiques and a member of the International YCS Center of Documentation and Information in Paris, presently the International Secretariat of International Young Catholic Students The author of books on...
, Pierre Milza
Pierre Milza
Pierre Milza is a French historian, well-known as a specialist of fascism.He is a teacher at Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.He wrote many books about Fascism and History of Italy. Some of his books are:I...
, François Sirinelli in particular) do not classify the "leagues" of the 30s as a native "French Fascism", particularly the Croix-de-Feu. The organisation is described by Rémond as completely secret in aims with an ideology "As vague as possible." Rémond, most famous and influential of these post-war historians, distinguishes "Reaction" and the far-right from revolutionary Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
as an import into France which had few takers. In the 1968 third edition of "La droite en France", his major work he defines fascism in Europe as a "revolt of the declasses, a movement of those on half-pay, civilian and military. Everywhere it came to power through social upheavals ... Although with a handful of fascists [in 1930s France], there was a minority of reactionaries and a great majority of conservatives." Amongst these he places much smaller groups like the Faisceau
Faisceau
Le Faisceau was a short-lived French Fascist political party. It was founded on November 11, 1925 as a far right league by Georges Valois. It was preceded by its newspaper, Le Nouveau Siècle - founded as a weekly on February 26, it became a daily after the party's creation.-Creation:Contributors...
, a tiny minority compared with the Croix-de-Feu, whose membership peaked at over a million.
Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...
, on the other hand, has argued for not only the existence of a native French fascism, but for groups like the Cercle Proudhon
Cercle Proudhon
The Cercle Proudhon was a political group founded in France on December 16, 1911 by George Valois and Édouard Berth. It was to include such people as French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle.-History:...
of the nineteen-teens being amongst the more important ideological breeding grounds of the movement. He, though, does not include the Croix de Feu in this category: "The 'centrist' right always had its own shock troops that served its own purposes, and took good care that they did not become confused with the fascists." Sternhell, interested in the Fascism as a "anti-material revision of Marxism" or an anti-capitalist, cultish, corporatist extreme nationalism, points out that groups like the Jeunesses Patriotes
Jeunesses Patriotes
The Jeunesses Patriotes were a Fascist-inspired street brawlers group of France, recruited mostly from university students and financed by industrialists founded in 1924 by Pierre Taittinger...
, the revived Ligue des Patriotes
Ligue des Patriotes
The Ligue des Patriotes was a French far right league, founded in 1882 by the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède, historian Henri Martin, and Felix Faure. The Ligue began as a non-partisan nationalist league calling for 'revanche' against Germany, and literally means "League of Patriots"...
and the Croix de Feu were derided by French fascists at the time. Fascist leaders in France saw themselves as destroyers of the old order, above politics, and rejecting the corruption of capitalism. To them the Leagues were a bulwark of this corrupt regime. Robert Brasillach
Robert Brasillach
Robert Brasillach was a French author and journalist. Brasillach is best known as the editor of Je suis partout, a nationalist newspaper which came to advocate various fascist movements and supported Jacques Doriot...
called them "old cuckolds of the right, these eternal deceived husbands of politics.." and claimed that "the enemies of national restoration are not only on the left but first and foremost on the right."
Other scholars -- Robert Soucy
Robert Soucy
Robert Soucy is an American historian, specializing in French fascist movements between 1924 and 1939, French fascist intellectuals Maurice Barrès and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, European fascism, twentieth century European intellectual history, and Marcel Proust's aesthetics of...
and William Irvine, notably—argue that the La Rocque and the Croix de Feu were, in fact, fascist, and a particularly "French" fascism. De la Rocque, however, if tempted by a paramilitary aesthetic and initially advocating collaboration
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
with the Germans during WWII, finally came out against the more radical supporters of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
See also
- Far right leaguesFar right leaguesThe Far right leagues were several French far right movements opposed to parliamentarism, which mainly dedicated themselves to military parades, street brawls, demonstrations and riots. The term ligue was often used in the 1930s to distinguish these political movements from parliamentary parties...
: these groups, in which the Croix-de-Feu are normally included, range from the 1890s-1930s, and range ideologically from Republican Nationalists, to Monarchist to Fascist.- Ligue des PatriotesLigue des PatriotesThe Ligue des Patriotes was a French far right league, founded in 1882 by the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède, historian Henri Martin, and Felix Faure. The Ligue began as a non-partisan nationalist league calling for 'revanche' against Germany, and literally means "League of Patriots"...
- Jeunesses PatriotesJeunesses PatriotesThe Jeunesses Patriotes were a Fascist-inspired street brawlers group of France, recruited mostly from university students and financed by industrialists founded in 1924 by Pierre Taittinger...
- Solidarité FrançaiseSolidarité FrançaiseSolidarité Française was a French far right league founded in 1933 by perfume manufacturer François Coty and commanded by Major Jean Renaud, they dressed in blue shirts, black berets, and jackboots, and shouted the slogan "France for the French"...
- Camelots du RoyCamelots du RoyThe Camelots du Roi were the youth organization of the Royalist Action française French integralist movement. Created on 16 November 1908, it was closely influenced by Charles Maurras' integralism doctrine of nationalism, and was quite popular between the two World Wars...
- Antisemitic League of FranceAntisemitic League of FranceThe Antisemitic League of France was founded in 1889 by the journalist Edouard Drumont. First known under the name of Ligue nationale antisémitique de France or Ligue antisémite française , this nationalist league was created in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair...
- FaisceauFaisceauLe Faisceau was a short-lived French Fascist political party. It was founded on November 11, 1925 as a far right league by Georges Valois. It was preceded by its newspaper, Le Nouveau Siècle - founded as a weekly on February 26, it became a daily after the party's creation.-Creation:Contributors...
- Mouvement FrancisteMouvement FrancisteThe Mouvement Franciste was a French Fascist and Antisemitic league created by Marcel Bucard in September 1933; it edited the newspaper Le Francisme. Mouvement Franciste reached of membership of 10,000, and was financed by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini...
- Ligue des Patriotes
- 6 February 1934 crisis6 February 1934 crisisThe 6 February 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the seat of the French National Assembly...
- Parti Populaire FrançaisParti Populaire FrançaisThe Parti Populaire Français was a fascist political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during World War II...
- Rassemblement National Populaire
- Rally of the Republican Lefts post - 1945 organisation which traces its ideology to the Croix-de-Feu
- Nationalist Foreign Volunteers