Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne
Encyclopedia
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
for "Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
") is an ethnonationalist think-tank, founded in 1968 by the journalist and writer Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...
.
GRECE distinguishes itself from other traditionalist conservative organizations in displaying specific interest for Germanic and Nordic cultures, rejection of Christianity and monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
, and advocating neopaganism
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
. Some critics called it a new form of neo-fascism
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
.
History
GRECE was created in January 1968 by forty far-right activists coming from movements such as Europe-Action, the review and the circle organized around Dominique VennerDominique Venner
Dominique Venner is an award-winning French historian, journalist and writer. Venner is a former militant of the ultra-right and later became a European nationalist before withdrawing from politics to focus on a career as a historian. He specializes in military and political history...
and Jean Mabire, the Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN), the National Movement of Progress (MNP) and the Rassemblement européen pour la liberté (REL). Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...
was among the founders, who intended to create an intellectual think-tank to influence French conservative politics. A number of journalists were members of sympathisers of the GRECE, writing in the reviews Éléments and Nouvelle École.
Several GRECE members founded the éditions Copernic in September 1976, which published writings of authors seen as "precursors", such as Louis Rougier
Louis Rougier
Louis Auguste Paul Rougier was a French philosopher. Rougier made many important contributions to epistemology, philosophy of science, political philosophy and the history of Christianity.-Biography:Rougier was born in Lyon...
, Oswald Spengler
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West , published in 1918, which puts forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations...
or Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
. GRECE favorized contact with elite circles by organizing conferences and meetings. It also partly funded circles which revolved around itself, such as the Pareto
Pareto
Pareto may refer to:* Vilfredo Pareto , Italian sociologist, economist and philosopher* Paula Pareto , Argentine judokaSeveral things named after Vilfredo Pareto:...
circle at Sciences-Po, the Galilei
Galilei
Galilei is a surname, and may refer to:*Galileo Galilei , astronomer, philosopher, and physicist.*Vincenzo Galilei , composer, lutenist, and music theorist; father of Galileo...
circle in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, the Jean Médecin
Jean Médecin
Jean Médecin was a French lawyer and politician. He was Mayor of Nice, France from 1928 to 1943 and from 1947 to 1965, and the father of Jacques Médecin, who succeeded him as mayor until 1990.- Before the war :...
circle in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, the Henry de Montherlant
Henry de Montherlant
Henry de Montherlant or Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant was a French essayist, novelist and one of the leading French dramatists of the twentieth century.- Works :...
circle in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, CLOSOR (Comité de liaison des officiers et sous-officiers de réserve, a military circle), GENE (Groupe d'études pour une nouvelle éducation, Study Group For a New Education), etc. GRECE members entered in Valeurs Actuelles
Valeurs Actuelles
Valeurs actuelles is a French magazine. Formerly owned by Socpresse, it is now owned by Sud Communication. The company is owned by Pierre Fabre, who founded Laboratoires Pierre Fabre....
and Le Spectacle du monde, French magazines owned by Raymond Bourgine, a conservative reporter and politician.
Several members of GRECE, including Benoist himself, joined the redaction of the Le Figaro Magazine, created in 1978 by Louis Pauwels
Louis Pauwels
Louis Pauwels was a French journalist and writer.- Biography :Louis Pauwels was a teacher at Athis-Mons from 1939 to 1945 , Louis Pauwels wrote in many monthly literary French magazines as early as 1946 until the...
, who had just arrived at the head of this magazine produced by the conservative newspaper 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...
and was the chief of Le Figaros cultural pages. Louis Pauwels invited Patrice de Plunkett
Patrice de Plunkett
Patrice de Plunkett is a French journalist and essayist who specializes in analyzing social issues. He was the editor of Le Figaro Magazine, one of the major French weekly magazines. After leaving this magazine in 1997, he has written a number of books.In 1983, he received the Renaissance Award...
(who was named vice-editor), Jean-Claude Valla, Yves Christen, Christian Durante, Michel Marmin, Grégory Pons, who were all members of GRECE. GRECE maintained its strong influence on Le Figaro Magazine until 1981. It claims that it had close to 4,000 members at the end of the 1970s, although this number is probably overestimated.
GRECE and the Club de l'Horloge
Club de l'Horloge
The Club de l'Horloge is a French far-right association founded in 1974. Close to the Nouvelle Droite movement, the club centers itself around the values of "liberalism, nationalism and democracy." Its president is Henry de Lesquen.-History:The Club de l'Horloge was founded by far-right members...
were targets of a hostile press campaign in 1979, denouncing the resurgence of a "new far right" elements in the cluster of the French New Right (Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
). GRECE and the Club de l'Horloge, though, had different aims, and few members in common, though the president of the Club de l'Horloge, Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot is a French [conservative] political figure who has been a member of GRECE as well as the founder and president of the Club de l'Horloge....
, was a member of GRECE for some time. The Nouvelle Droite was targeted later on, by newspapers including Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, the satirical publication Le Canard Enchaîné
Le Canard enchaîné
Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France. Founded in 1915, it features investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons.-Early...
and Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
.
In the 80s, Benoist notably displayed an interest in Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
countries, but he also professed anti-liberal and anti-American ideas. Several notable members quit GRECE at this point, notably Pierre Vial, who joined the Front national, or Guillaume Faye
Guillaume Faye
Guillaume Faye is a French journalist and writer.With a PhD from Science-Po, Guillaume Faye was one of the major theorists of the French New Right in the 1970-1980’s. A former member of Alain de Benoist’s New Right organisation GRECE, he took part in the splitting of the organization in 1986...
, who pursued a career in journalism before coming back to politics in 1998, with radical ideas clashing with the more consensual theses now defended by Benoist.
In spite of these resignations, most members do not have a high opinion of the Front National, which contains Catholic traditionalists whose views are incompatible with the pagan intellectuals of the GRECE.
Philosophical themes
The publication of GRECE feature many articles on political philosophy, taking a lead from such authors as Carl SchmittCarl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt was a German jurist, philosopher, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power...
, Julien Freund, Vilfredo Pareto
Vilfredo Pareto
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....
, Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...
, and ideologies such as 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...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. Other topics regularly discussed are on identity and culture, religion, racism and anti-racism, physics, biology, and economics.
In the last years, GRECE has developed an idea of a politically powerful Europe, which wouldn't suffer from the influences of "neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
" and the United States
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
, seen as the "representant of the dominant ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
of Modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
", trying to work on such ideas of localism
Localism (politics)
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
, environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
and communitarianism
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is an ideology that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. That community may be the family unit, but it can also be understood in a far wider sense of personal interaction, of geographical location, or of shared history.-Terminology:Though the term...
. In 1999, GRECE published a manifesto by Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...
and Charles Champetier, the Manifeste pour une nouvelle culture, that was a synthesis of some of its work.