History of far right movements in France
Encyclopedia
The far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic
with the Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair
.
was a turning point in the political history of France and in the Third Republic
(1871–1940), established after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War
and the 1871 Paris Commune
.
, was arrested (in 1894), accused of treason and of intelligence with the German Empire. The Dreyfus Affair
provided one of the political division line of France. Nationalism
, which had been before the Dreyfus Affair a left-wing and Republican ideology, turned after that to be a main trait of the right-wing and, moreover, of the far right.
Emile Zola
entered the political scene as the first "intellectual
" of history, while left and right-wing opposed themselves, mainly over the questions of militarism
, nationalism
, justice
and human rights
. Until then, nationalism was a Republican, left-wing ideology, related to the French Revolution
and the Revolutionary Wars
. It was a liberal nationalism, formulated by Ernest Renan
's definition of the nation as a "daily plebiscite" and as formed by the subjective "will to live together." Related to "revanchism", the belligerent will to take revenge against Germany and retake control of Alsace-Lorraine
, nationalism could then be sometimes opposed to imperialism
. In the 1880s, a debate thus opposed those who opposed the "colonial lobby
", such as Georges Clemenceau
(Radical), who declared that colonialism diverted France from the "blue line of the Vosges
" (referring to Alsace-Lorraine), Jean Jaurès
(Socialist) and Maurice Barrès
(nationalist), against Jules Ferry (moderate republican), Léon Gambetta (republican) and Eugène Etienne, the president of the parliamentary colonial group.
But in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair, a new right emerged, and nationalism was reappropriated by the far-right who turned it into a form of ethnic nationalism
, itself blended with anti-Semitism, xenophoby, anti-Protestantism and anti-Masonry
. Charles Maurras
(1868–1952), founder of "integralism
" (or "integral nationalism"), created the term "Anti-France" to stigmatize "internal foreigners", or the "four confederate states of Protestants, Jews, Freemasons and foreigners" (his actual word for the latter being the far less polite métèques). A few years later, Maurras would join the monarchist Action française
, created by Maurice Pujo
and Henri Vaugeois
in 1898. Maurras, who was an agnostic, spearheaded a monarchist and Catholic revival. He pragmatically conceived of religion as an ideology
useful to unify the nation. Most French Catholics were conservatives, a trait that continues today. On the other hand, most Protestants, Jews and atheists belonged to the left-wing. Henceforth, the Republicans' conception was, to the contrary, that only state secularism could pacifically gather the diversity of religious and philosophial tendencies, and avoid any return to the Wars of Religion
. Furthermore, Catholic priests were seen as a major, reactionary force by the Republicans, among which anti-clericalism
became a common spread. The Ferry laws on public education had been a first step for the Republic in rooting out the clerics' influence ; they would be completed by the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State
.
The Action française, first founded as a review, was the matrix of a new type of counter-revolutionary right-wing, and continues to exist today. The Action française was quite influent in the 1930s, in particular through its youth organization, the Camelots du Roy
, founded in 1908, and which engaged in many street brawls, etc. The Camelots du Roy included such figures as Catholic writer Georges Bernanos
or Jean de Barrau, member of the directing committee of the National Federation, and particular secretary of the duc d'Orléans (1869–1926), the son of the Orleanist
count of Paris
(1838–1894) and hence Orleanist heir to the throne of France. Many members of the OAS
terrorist group during the Algerian War (1954–62) were part of the monarchist movement. Jean Ousset
, Maurras' personal secretary, created the Cité catholique
Catholic fundamentalist organization, which would include OAS members and founded a branch in Argentina in the 1960s.
Apart from the Action française, several far-right leagues were created during the Dreyfus Affair. Mostly anti-Semitic, they also represented a new right-wing tendency, sharing common traits such as anti-parliamentarism, militarism, nationalism, and often engaged in street brawls. Thus, the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède
created in 1882 the anti-semitic Ligue des patriotes
(Patriot's League), which at first focused on advocating 'revanche' (revenge) for the French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War
. Along with Jules Guérin
, the journalist Edouard Drumont
created the Antisemitic League of France
in 1889. Also anti-masonry, the League became at the turn of the century the Grand Occident de France, a name chosen in reaction against the masonic lodge of the Grand Orient de France
.
, the Action française
(AF) and its youth militia, the Camelots du Roi, were very active, in particular in the Quartier Latin of Paris. Apart of the AF, various far-right leagues were formed and opposed both Cartel des gauches
(Left-wings coalition) governments. Pierre Taittinger
thus formed the Jeunesses Patriotes
in 1924, which imitated Fascism
style although it remained a more traditional authoritarian movement. The following year, Georges Valois
created Le Faisceau, heavily inspired by Benito Mussolini
's Fascism
. Finally, in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler gained power
in Germany, the wealthy perfumer François Coty
founded Solidarité française
and Marcel Bucard
formed the Francisme, which was subsided by Mussolini. Another important league was François de la Rocque
's Croix de Feu, which formed the base for the Parti Social Français (PSF), the first mass party of the French right-wing.
Apart of the leagues, a group of Neosocialists (Marcel Déat
, Pierre Renaudel, etc.) were excluded in November 1933 from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party]] because of their revisionist stances and admiration for fascism. Déat would become one of the most ardent Collaborationists during World War II.
Others important figures of the 1930s include Xavier Vallat
, who would become General Commissionner for Jewish Affairs under Vichy
, members of the Cagoule
terrorist group (Eugène Deloncle
, Eugène Schueller
, the founder of L'Oréal
cosmetic firm, Jacques Corrèze
, Joseph Darnand
, latter founded of the Service d'ordre légionnaire
militia during Vichy, etc.). To obtain arms from fascist Italy
, the group assassinated two Italian antifascists, the Rosselli brothers
, on June 9, 1937, and sabotaged airplanes clandestinely supplied by the French government to the Second Spanish Republic
. They also attempted a coup against the Popular Front
government, elected in 1936, leading to arrests in 1937, ordered by Interior Minister Marx Dormoy
, during which the police seized explosives and military weapons, including anti-tank guns.
organized these riots that led to the fall of the Second Cartel des gauches
. The leagues were dissolved on 18 January 1936 by the Popular Front
.
fundamentalist group and going to Argentina, where they were in contact with the Argentine Armed Forces. Jean Pierre Cherid
, former OAS member, took part in the 1976 Montejurra massacre against left-wing Carlists. He was then part of the Spanish GAL
death squad, and participated in the 1978 assassination of Argala, one of the etarra
who had killed Franco
's Prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco
, in 1973.
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
was the far-right candidate at the 1965 presidential election
. His campaign was organized by Jean-Marie Le Pen
. Charles de Gaulle
said of Tixier-Vignancourt: "Tixier-Vignancour, that is Vichy, the Collaboration
proud of itself, the Militia
, the OAS".
founded the Front National (FN) party in 1972, along with former Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) member Jacques Bompard
, former Collaborationist Roland Gaucher
, François Duprat
, who introduced the negationist thesis to France, and others nostalgics of Vichy France
, Catholic fundamentalists, etc. Le Pen presented himself for the first time in the 1974 presidential election
, obtaining 0.74%. The electoral rise of the FN did not start until Jean-Pierre Stirbois
's victory, in 1983, in Dreux
. The FN became stronger through-out the 1980s, managing to unite most far-right tendencies, passing electoral alliances with the right-wing Rally for the Republic
(RPR), while some FN members quit the party to join the RPR or the Union for a French Democracy (UDF). At the 1986 legislative elections, the FN managed to obtain 35 seats, with 10% of the votes.
Meanwhile, other far-right tendencies gathered in Alain de Benoist
's Nouvelle Droite
think-tank, heading a pro-European line. Some radical members of the "national revolutionary" tendency quit the FN to form other minor parties (Party of New Forces, PFN, and French and European Nationalist Party
, PNFE).
(Fédération d'action nationaliste et européenne, Nationalist and European Federation of Action). The FANE boasted at most a hundred activists, including members such as Luc Michel
, now leader of the Parti communautaire national-européen
(National European Communautary Party), Jacques Bastide, Michel Faci, Michel Caignet and Henri-Robert Petit
, a journalist and former Collaborationist who directed under the Vichy regime the newspaper Le Pilori. The FANE maintained international contacts with the British group the League of Saint George
.
The FANE rallyed Jean-Marie Le Pen
's National Front in 1974, gathered around François Duprat
and Alain Renault's Revolutionary Nationalist Groups
(GNR), which represented the nationalist revolutionary
tendency of the FN.
But in 1978, Neo-nazi members of the GNR-FANE broke again with the FN, taking with them parts of the FNJ members (youth organization of the FN). On the other hand, GNR activists closer to the Third Position
(Jacques Bastide and Patrick Gorre ) joined Jean-Gilles Malliarakis
to found, on February 11, 1979, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (Mouvement nationaliste révolutionnaire), which became in 1985 Third Way
(Troisième Voie).
After this brief passage at the National Front, Mark Fredriksen created the Faisceaux nationalistes européens (FANE
) in July 1980. These would eventually merge with the Mouvement national et social ethniste in 1987, and then with the PNFE (French and European Nationalist Party) in January 1994, which also gathered former National Front members.
Dissolved first in September 1980 by Raymond Barre
's government, Fredriksen's group was recreated, and dissolved again in 1985 by Laurent Fabius
's government. Finally, it was dissolved a third time in 1987 by Jacques Chirac
's government, on charges of "violent demonstrations organized by this movement, which has as one of its expressed objective the establishment of a new Nazi regime," the "paramilitary
organisation of this association and its incitations to racial discrimination."
theorized the Nouvelle Droite
movement, creating the GRECE in 1968 with the Club de l'Horloge
. They advocated an ethno-nationalism stance focused on European culture, which advocated a return of paganism
. Members of the GRECE quit the think tank in the 1980s, such as Pierre Vial who joined the FN, or Guillaume Faye
who quit the organization along with others members in 1986. Faye participated in 2006 in a conference in the US organized by the American Renaissance
white separatist magazine published by the New Century Foundation
.
On the other hand, Alain Benoist occasionally contributed to the Mankind Quarterly
review, which insists on hereditarianism
and associated with the US think tank Pioneer Fund
, headed by J. Philippe Rushton
, author of Race, Evolution and Behavior (1995), which argues in favour of a biological conception of "race." GRECE, as well as the Pioneer Fund, are actively involved in the "race and intelligence
" debate, postulating that there is an identifiable link between levels of intelligence and distinct ethnic group
s.
The Club de l'horloge itself had been founded by Henry de Lesquen
, a former member of the conservative Rally for the Republic
, which he quit in 1984. Others members of the Club de l'horloge, such as Bruno Mégret
, later joined the FN after a short time in the RPR.
's leadership, most rival far-right tendencies of France, following a succession of splits and alliances with other, minor parties, during the 1970s.
and François Brigneau who first organized the Comité faire front before merging in the PFN.
The PFN was formed mainly by former members of New Order
(Ordre nouveau, 1969–1973), whom had refused to merge in the FN at its 1972 creation. New Order, dissolved by Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin
in 1973, was itself a successor to Occident
(1964–1968) and of the Union Defense Group (GUD, Groupe union défense).
Close to the Third Position
and "national-revolutionary" thesis, this tendency maintained links with the FN, despite some tensions. The GUD, in particular, had published the satiric monthly Alternative with the Youth Front (Front de la jeunesse), youth organization of the FN. They also had attempted alliances with other far-right parties in Europe, with New Order organizing the alliance "A Fatherland for Tomorrow" (Une patrie pour demain) with the Spanish Falange
, the Italian Social Movement
(MSI) and the German National Democratic Party
.
This European strategy was continued by the PFN, who launched the Euroright alliance, with the MSI, the Spanish New Force and the Belgian PFN, for the 1979 European elections
. Headed by Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
, the PFN won 1.3% of the vote. This electoral failure prompted Roland Gaucher
and François Brigneau to quit the party and join Le Pen's National Front.
, with both Pascal Gauchon (PFN) and Le Pen (FN) attempting, without success, to secure from mayors the 500 signatures necessary to present themselves as candidates. François Mitterrand
(Socialist Party
) won those elections, competing against Jacques Chirac
(Rally for the Republic
, RPR).
. Jean-Pierre Stirbois
, obtained 17% of the votes at the first round, for the FN municipal list. At the second round, he merged his list with Chirac's RPR list (headed by Jean Hieaux), enabling the right a victory against the left. Chirac supported the alliance with the far-right, claiming the Socialist Party, allied with the Communist Party
in government, had no lessons to give.
This first electoral success was confirmed at the 1984 European elections
, the FN obtaining 10% of the votes. Two years later, the FN gained 35 deputies (nearly 10% of the votes) at the 1986 legislative elections, under the appellation of "Rassemblement national." These included the monarchist Georges-Paul Wagner
.
Internal disputes continued however to divise the far-right. Following the 1986 elections, which brought Jacques Chirac
as Prime minister, some hardliners inside the FN spin-off to create the French and European Nationalist Party
(PNFE, Parti Nationaliste Français et Européen), along with members of Mark Frederiksen's Third Position FANE
. Three former members of the PNFE were charged of having profanated, in 1990, a Jewish cemetery in Carpentras
.
in 1999. Taking with him many elected members of the FN and electoral troops, he then created the National Republican Movement
(MNR). However, in view of the 2007 legislative elections
, he accepted to support Le Pen's candidacy for the presidential election
.
During these presidential elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen
only made 10.4%, compared to his stunning 16.9% finish in 2002
, during which he reached the second round, achieving 17.79% against 82.21% for Jacques Chirac
(Rally for the Republic
, RPR).
With only 1.85 % at the second round of the 2002 legislative elections, the FN failed to gain any seat in the National Assembly
. At the 2007 presidential election
, Le Pen arrived fourth, with 10,4% of the votes at the first round, behind Nicolas Sarkozy
, Ségolène Royal
and François Bayrou
. Philippe de Villiers
, Catholic traditionalist candidate of the Movement for France
(especially present in the traditionalist Vendée
region), arrived sixth, obtaining 2,23% of the vote.
This electoral downfall of the FN was confirmed at the 2007 legislative elections, the FN obtaining only 0.08% of the votes at the second round, and therefore no seats.
. Le Pen then announced, in 2008, that he would not compete again in presidential elections, leaving the way for the competition for the control of the FN between his daughter, Marine Le Pen
, whom he favored, and Bruno Gollnisch
. The latter had been condemned in January 2007 for Holocaust denial
, while Marine Le Pen attempted to follow a smoother strategy to give the FN a more "respectable" image.
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
with the Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
.
The Third Republic from 1871 to 1914
The Dreyfus AffairDreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
was a turning point in the political history of France and in the Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
(1871–1940), established after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
and the 1871 Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
.
The Dreyfus Affair and the foundation of the Action française
However, a few years later, a Jewish officer, Alfred DreyfusAlfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, was arrested (in 1894), accused of treason and of intelligence with the German Empire. The Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
provided one of the political division line of France. 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...
, which had been before the Dreyfus Affair a left-wing and Republican ideology, turned after that to be a main trait of the right-wing and, moreover, of the far right.
Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
entered the political scene as the first "intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
" of history, while left and right-wing opposed themselves, mainly over the questions of militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
, 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...
, justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. Until then, nationalism was a Republican, left-wing ideology, related to the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and the Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
. It was a liberal nationalism, formulated by Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
's definition of the nation as a "daily plebiscite" and as formed by the subjective "will to live together." Related to "revanchism", the belligerent will to take revenge against Germany and retake control of Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
, nationalism could then be sometimes opposed to imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. In the 1880s, a debate thus opposed those who opposed the "colonial lobby
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
", such as Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
(Radical), who declared that colonialism diverted France from the "blue line of the Vosges
Vosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
" (referring to Alsace-Lorraine), Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
(Socialist) and Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
(nationalist), against Jules Ferry (moderate republican), Léon Gambetta (republican) and Eugène Etienne, the president of the parliamentary colonial group.
But in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair, a new right emerged, and nationalism was reappropriated by the far-right who turned it into a form of ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
, itself blended with anti-Semitism, xenophoby, anti-Protestantism and anti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry is defined as "avowed opposition to Freemasonry". However, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement...
. Charles Maurras
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras was a French author, poet, and critic. He was a leader and principal thinker of Action Française, a political movement that was monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, and counter-revolutionary. Maurras' ideas greatly influenced National Catholicism and "nationalisme...
(1868–1952), founder of "integralism
Integralism
Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups...
" (or "integral nationalism"), created the term "Anti-France" to stigmatize "internal foreigners", or the "four confederate states of Protestants, Jews, Freemasons and foreigners" (his actual word for the latter being the far less polite métèques). A few years later, Maurras would join 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...
, created by Maurice Pujo
Maurice Pujo
Maurice Pujo was a French journalist and co-founder, with Henri Vaugeois in 1898, of the Comité d'Action Française, which subsequently became the nationalist and monarchist Action Française movement.His son, Pierre Pujo led Action Française until his death on 10 November 2007....
and Henri Vaugeois
Henri Vaugeois
Henri Vaugeois was a French far right politician and one of the founders of Action Française.Born in L'Aigle, Orne, Vaugeois settled in Coulommiers where he taught philosophy. Initially a republican liberal, Vaugeois even flirted with Marxism in his youth...
in 1898. Maurras, who was an agnostic, spearheaded a monarchist and Catholic revival. He pragmatically conceived of religion as an 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...
useful to unify the nation. Most French Catholics were conservatives, a trait that continues today. On the other hand, most Protestants, Jews and atheists belonged to the left-wing. Henceforth, the Republicans' conception was, to the contrary, that only state secularism could pacifically gather the diversity of religious and philosophial tendencies, and avoid any return to the Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
. Furthermore, Catholic priests were seen as a major, reactionary force by the Republicans, among which anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
became a common spread. The Ferry laws on public education had been a first step for the Republic in rooting out the clerics' influence ; they would be completed by the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State
1905 French law on the separation of Church and State
The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 9 December 1905. Enacted during the Third Republic, it established state secularism in France...
.
The Action française, first founded as a review, was the matrix of a new type of counter-revolutionary right-wing, and continues to exist today. The Action française was quite influent in the 1930s, in particular through its youth organization, the Camelots du Roy
Camelots du Roy
The 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...
, founded in 1908, and which engaged in many street brawls, etc. The Camelots du Roy included such figures as Catholic writer Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Roman Catholic and monarchist leanings, he was a violent adversary to bourgeois thought and to what he identified as defeatism leading to France's defeat in 1940.-Biography:Bernanos was born at Paris, into a family of...
or Jean de Barrau, member of the directing committee of the National Federation, and particular secretary of the duc d'Orléans (1869–1926), the son of the Orleanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
count of Paris
Philippe, Comte de Paris
Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...
(1838–1894) and hence Orleanist heir to the throne of France. Many members of the OAS
Organisation armée secrète
The Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...
terrorist group during the Algerian War (1954–62) were part of the monarchist movement. Jean Ousset
Jean Ousset
Jean Ousset was a French ideologist of National Catholicism born in Porto, Portugal. He was an activist of the Action française monarchist movement in the 1930s, and personal secretary of its leader, Charles Maurras...
, Maurras' personal secretary, created the Cité catholique
Cité catholique
The Cité Catholique is a Traditionalist Catholic organisation created in 1946 by Jean Ousset, originally a follower of Charles Maurras and Jean Masson , not to be confused with Jacques Desoubrie, who also used the pseudonym Jean Masson...
Catholic fundamentalist organization, which would include OAS members and founded a branch in Argentina in the 1960s.
Apart from the Action française, several far-right leagues were created during the Dreyfus Affair. Mostly anti-Semitic, they also represented a new right-wing tendency, sharing common traits such as anti-parliamentarism, militarism, nationalism, and often engaged in street brawls. Thus, the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède
Paul Déroulède
- Early life :Déroulède was born in Paris. He was published first as a poet in the magazine Revue nationale, with the pseudonym "Jean Rebel". In 1869 he produced, at the Théâtre Français, a one-act drama in verse named Juan Strenner.- Military career :...
created in 1882 the anti-semitic 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"...
(Patriot's League), which at first focused on advocating 'revanche' (revenge) for the French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. Along with Jules Guérin
Jules Guérin
Jules Guérin was the founder and leader of the French Ligue Antisemitique, an organisation similar to the Ligue des Patriotes. The Ligue was involved in many anti-semitic and anti-Dreyfus protests during the Dreyfus Affair. Guérin was indicted, with Déroulède and his Ligue de Patriotes for...
, the journalist Edouard Drumont
Edouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont was a French journalist and writer. He founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper La Libre Parole.- Early life :...
created the Antisemitic League of France
Antisemitic League of France
The 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...
in 1889. Also anti-masonry, the League became at the turn of the century the Grand Occident de France, a name chosen in reaction against the masonic lodge of the Grand Orient de France
Grand Orient de France
The Grand Orient de France is the largest of several Masonic organizations in France and the oldest in Continental Europe, founded in 1733.-Foundation:...
.
Between the wars
During the interwar periodInterwar 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....
, 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...
(AF) and its youth militia, the Camelots du Roi, were very active, in particular in the Quartier Latin of Paris. Apart of the AF, various far-right leagues were formed and opposed both 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-wings coalition) governments. Pierre Taittinger
Pierre Taittinger
Pierre-Charles Taittinger was founder of the famous Taittinger champagne house and chairman of the municipal council of Paris in 1943–1944 during the German occupation of France, in which position he played a role during the Liberation of Paris.-Personal life:Born in Paris, Pierre...
thus formed 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...
in 1924, which imitated 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...
style although it remained a more traditional authoritarian movement. The following year, Georges Valois
Georges Valois
Georges Valois was a French journalist and politician.-Life and career:Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist...
created Le Faisceau, heavily inspired by Benito 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....
's Fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
. Finally, in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler gained power
Hitler's rise to power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in Germany in September 1919 when Hitler joined the political party that was known as the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei . This political party was formed and developed during the post-World War I era...
in Germany, the wealthy perfumer François Coty
François Coty
François Coty was a French perfume manufacturer, newspaper publisher, and founder of the fascist league Solidarité Française...
founded Solidarité française
Solidarité Française
Solidarité 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"...
and Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...
formed the Francisme, which was subsided by Mussolini. Another important league was 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...
's Croix de Feu, which formed the base for the Parti Social Français (PSF), the first mass party of the French right-wing.
Apart of the leagues, a group of Neosocialists (Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat
Marcel Déat was a French Socialist until 1933, when he initiated a spin-off from the French Section of the Workers' International along with other right-wing 'Neosocialists'. He then founded the collaborationist National Popular Rally during the Vichy regime...
, Pierre Renaudel, etc.) were excluded in November 1933 from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party]] because of their revisionist stances and admiration for fascism. Déat would become one of the most ardent Collaborationists during World War II.
Others important figures of the 1930s include Xavier Vallat
Xavier Vallat
Xavier Vallat , French politician, was Commissioner-General for Jewish Questions in the wartime Vichy collaborationist government, and was sentenced after World War II to ten years in prison for his part in the persecution of French Jews.- Until World War II :Vallat was born in the department of...
, who would become General Commissionner for Jewish Affairs under Vichy
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...
, members of the Cagoule
La Cagoule
La Cagoule , officially called Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire , was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group, active in the 1930s, and designed to attempt the overthrow of the French Third Republic...
terrorist group (Eugène Deloncle
Eugène Deloncle
Eugène Deloncle was a French engineer and Fascist leader, and the adoptive father of Jacques Corrèze....
, Eugène Schueller
Eugène Schueller
Eugène Schueller was the founder of L'Oréal, the world's leading company in cosmetics and beauty.- Career with L'Oréal :...
, the founder of L'Oréal
L'Oréal
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...
cosmetic firm, Jacques Corrèze
Jacques Corrèze
Jacques Corrèze , a French businessman and politician, was the former chief executive officer of the United States operation of L'Oréal , the world's leading company in cosmetics and beauty products...
, Joseph Darnand
Joseph Darnand
Joseph Darnand was a French soldier and later a leader of the Vichy French collaborators with Nazi Germany....
, latter founded of the Service d'ordre légionnaire
Service d'ordre légionnaire
The Service d'ordre légionnaire was a collaborationist militia created by Joseph Darnand, a far right veteran from the First World War...
militia during Vichy, etc.). To obtain arms from fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, the group assassinated two Italian antifascists, the Rosselli brothers
Carlo Rosselli
Carlo Rosselli was an Italian political leader, journalist, historian and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy then abroad...
, on June 9, 1937, and sabotaged airplanes clandestinely supplied by the French government to the Second Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
. They also attempted a coup against 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, elected in 1936, leading to arrests in 1937, ordered by Interior Minister Marx Dormoy
Marx Dormoy
Marx Dormoy was a French socialist politician, noted for his opposition to the far right.-Early career:Born in Montluçon, he was elected mayor of his native town in 1926, and representative of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière to the French National Assembly in 1931 for the Allier...
, during which the police seized explosives and military weapons, including anti-tank guns.
6 February 1934
Far right leaguesFar 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...
organized these riots that led to the fall 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...
. The leagues were dissolved on 18 January 1936 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...
.
Fourth Republic and the Algerian War
The Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) was created in Madrid by French military opposed to the independence of Algeria. Many of its members would later join various anti-communist struggles around the world. Some, for example, joined the Cité catholiqueCité catholique
The Cité Catholique is a Traditionalist Catholic organisation created in 1946 by Jean Ousset, originally a follower of Charles Maurras and Jean Masson , not to be confused with Jacques Desoubrie, who also used the pseudonym Jean Masson...
fundamentalist group and going to Argentina, where they were in contact with the Argentine Armed Forces. Jean Pierre Cherid
Jean Pierre Cherid
Jean-Pierre Cherid was a far right French activist and later mercenary of Moroccan descent. A former French paratrooper, he first became a member of the Organisation de l'armée secrète during the Algerian War .Afterwards, Cherid appeared in Spain in 1976...
, former OAS member, took part in the 1976 Montejurra massacre against left-wing Carlists. He was then part of the Spanish GAL
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación were death squads established illegally by officials of the Spanish government to fight ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under Spanish Socialist Workers Party -led governments...
death squad, and participated in the 1978 assassination of Argala, one of the etarra
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
who had killed Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's Prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco
Luis Carrero Blanco
Don Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero Blanco, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish admiral and long-time confidant of dictator Francisco Franco.- Biography :...
, in 1973.
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour was a lawyer and French nationalist politician. He was a candidate in the 1965 French presidential election when his campaign manager was Jean-Marie Le Pen. He won 1,260,208 votes, which was 5.2% of the total, giving him fourth place after De Gaulle, Mitterrand and...
was the far-right candidate at the 1965 presidential election
French presidential election, 1965
The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
. His campaign was organized by Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
. Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
said of Tixier-Vignancourt: "Tixier-Vignancour, that is Vichy, the 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,...
proud of itself, the Militia
Milice
The Milice française , generally called simply Milice, was a paramilitary force created on January 30, 1943 by the Vichy Regime, with German aid, to help fight the French Resistance. The Milice's formal leader was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, though its chief of operations, and actual leader, was...
, the OAS".
Fifth Republic
Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
founded the Front National (FN) party in 1972, along with former Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) member Jacques Bompard
Jacques Bompard
Jacques Bompard is a French politician. Bompard is the mayor of Orange, elected in June 1995 and reelected in 2001 and 2008. He was originally a member of the Front National , but left the party in 2005. He joined the Mouvement pour la France later the same year...
, former Collaborationist Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher was the pseudonym of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right journalist and politician. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in Marcel Déat's fascist party Rassemblement National Populaire under the Vichy regime...
, François Duprat
François Duprat
François Duprat was a writer and Holocaust denier. He was known also for being a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978.-Biography:...
, who introduced the negationist thesis to France, and others nostalgics of 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...
, Catholic fundamentalists, etc. Le Pen presented himself for the first time in the 1974 presidential election
French presidential election, 1974
Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...
, obtaining 0.74%. The electoral rise of the FN did not start until Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois was a French far-right politician, husband of Marie-France Stirbois. He has been associated with the first electoral breakthrough of the National Front, in Dreux in 1983....
's victory, in 1983, in Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
. The FN became stronger through-out the 1980s, managing to unite most far-right tendencies, passing electoral alliances with the right-wing Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR), while some FN members quit the party to join the RPR or the Union for a French Democracy (UDF). At the 1986 legislative elections, the FN managed to obtain 35 seats, with 10% of the votes.
Meanwhile, other far-right tendencies gathered in 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:...
's 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:...
think-tank, heading a pro-European line. Some radical members of the "national revolutionary" tendency quit the FN to form other minor parties (Party of New Forces, PFN, and French and European Nationalist Party
French and European Nationalist Party
The French and European Nationalist Party was a minor French far right political group founded in 1987. It was led by Claude Cornilleau and despite its name was not a political party in the conventional sense...
, PNFE).
The French Third Position's relations with the National Front
Mark Frederiksen, a French Algeria activist, created in April 1966 a Neo-Nazi group, the FANEFane
Fane may refer to:* Fane, Papua New Guinea, village associated with Simona Noorenbergh* Fane * Fane River in Ireland...
(Fédération d'action nationaliste et européenne, Nationalist and European Federation of Action). The FANE boasted at most a hundred activists, including members such as Luc Michel
Luc Michel
Luc Michel is a far-left Belgian political activist and supporter of the ideas of Jean-François Thiriart...
, now leader of the Parti communautaire national-européen
Parti Communautaire National-Européen
The Parti communautaire national-européen is a Belgium-based political organisation led by Luc Michel, a former member of the Neo-Nazi FANE party. A largely National Bolshevik movement, it also has activists in France....
(National European Communautary Party), Jacques Bastide, Michel Faci, Michel Caignet and Henri-Robert Petit
Henri-Robert Petit
Henri Petit was a French journalist, Collaborationist under the Vichy regime and far-right activist....
, a journalist and former Collaborationist who directed under the Vichy regime the newspaper Le Pilori. The FANE maintained international contacts with the British group the League of Saint George
League of Saint George
The League of St. George is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United Kingdom.-History:The League was formed around 1974 as a political club by Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin as a breakaway from the Action Party, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley. The League sought to continue what it...
.
The FANE rallyed Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front in 1974, gathered around François Duprat
François Duprat
François Duprat was a writer and Holocaust denier. He was known also for being a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978.-Biography:...
and Alain Renault's Revolutionary Nationalist Groups
Revolutionary Nationalist Groups
The Revolutionary Nationalist Groups were a French far-right organization which gathered the nationalist revolutionary tendency between 1976 and 1978....
(GNR), which represented the nationalist revolutionary
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
tendency of the FN.
But in 1978, Neo-nazi members of the GNR-FANE broke again with the FN, taking with them parts of the FNJ members (youth organization of the FN). On the other hand, GNR activists closer to the Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
(Jacques Bastide and Patrick Gorre ) joined Jean-Gilles Malliarakis
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis is a French far-right politician and writer. He is the son of noted painter 'Mayo' and was educated at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.-Early career:...
to found, on February 11, 1979, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (Mouvement nationaliste révolutionnaire), which became in 1985 Third Way
Third Way (France)
Third Way a French Third Position organisation founded in 1985 by a merger of the small neo-fascist Mouvement nationaliste révolutionnaire, which gathered former members of François Duprat's Revolutionary Nationalist Groups , with dissidents from the Parti des forces nouvelles.Led by Jean-Gilles...
(Troisième Voie).
After this brief passage at the National Front, Mark Fredriksen created the Faisceaux nationalistes européens (FANE
Fane
Fane may refer to:* Fane, Papua New Guinea, village associated with Simona Noorenbergh* Fane * Fane River in Ireland...
) in July 1980. These would eventually merge with the Mouvement national et social ethniste in 1987, and then with the PNFE (French and European Nationalist Party) in January 1994, which also gathered former National Front members.
Dissolved first in September 1980 by Raymond Barre
Raymond Barre
Raymond Octave Joseph Barre was a French centre-right politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three Presidents and later served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981...
's government, Fredriksen's group was recreated, and dissolved again in 1985 by Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius is a French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic.-Early life:...
's government. Finally, it was dissolved a third time in 1987 by Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
's government, on charges of "violent demonstrations organized by this movement, which has as one of its expressed objective the establishment of a new Nazi regime," the "paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organisation of this association and its incitations to racial discrimination."
Alain de Benoist's Nouvelle Droite and the Club de l'Horloge
In the 1980s, Alain de BenoistAlain 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:...
theorized the 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:...
movement, creating the GRECE in 1968 with 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...
. They advocated an ethno-nationalism stance focused on European culture, which advocated a return of paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
. Members of the GRECE quit the think tank in the 1980s, such as Pierre Vial who joined the FN, 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 quit the organization along with others members in 1986. Faye participated in 2006 in a conference in the US organized by the American Renaissance
American Renaissance (magazine)
-Cancellation of 2010, 2011 conferences:In February 2010, following protests to hotel management of several hotels, which Jared Taylor claimed included some death threats, American Renaissance's biennial conference was canceled...
white separatist magazine published by the New Century Foundation
New Century Foundation
The New Century Foundation is nonprofit organization founded in 1994 to study immigration and race relations. From 1994 to 1999 its activities received considerable funding by the Pioneer Fund., and has been described as a white supremacist group....
.
On the other hand, Alain Benoist occasionally contributed to the Mankind Quarterly
Mankind Quarterly
The Mankind Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to physical and cultural anthropology and is currently published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. It contains articles on human evolution, intelligence, ethnography, linguistics, mythology,...
review, which insists on hereditarianism
Hereditarianism
Hereditarianism is the doctrine or school of thought that heredity plays a significant role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality. Hereditarians believe in the power of genetics to explain human character traits and solve human social and political...
and associated with the US think tank Pioneer Fund
Pioneer Fund
The Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." Currently headed by psychology professor J. Philippe Rushton, the fund states that it focuses on projects it perceives will not be easily funded due to...
, headed by J. Philippe Rushton
J. Philippe Rushton
Jean Philippe Rushton is a Canadian psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario who is most widely known for his work on racial group differences, such as research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and the application of r/K selection theory to humans in his book Race,...
, author of Race, Evolution and Behavior (1995), which argues in favour of a biological conception of "race." GRECE, as well as the Pioneer Fund, are actively involved in the "race and intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...
" debate, postulating that there is an identifiable link between levels of intelligence and distinct ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s.
The Club de l'horloge itself had been founded by Henry de Lesquen
Henry de Lesquen
Henry de Lesquen is a French politician. He is the president of the Club de l'Horloge, a conservative think tank....
, a former member of the conservative Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
, which he quit in 1984. Others members of the Club de l'horloge, such as Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret is a French Far-right politician. He is the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from political action.-Youth and studies:...
, later joined the FN after a short time in the RPR.
Rise of the National Front in the 1980s and Mégret's split
During the 1980s, the National Front managed to gather, under Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's leadership, most rival far-right tendencies of France, following a succession of splits and alliances with other, minor parties, during the 1970s.
Party of New Forces
One of those party, the Party of New Forces (PFN, Parti des forces nouvelles), was an offshoot of the National Front, issued from a 1973 split headed by Alain RobertAlain Robert
Alain Robert , is a French rock and urban climber, from Digoin, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France...
and François Brigneau who first organized the Comité faire front before merging in the PFN.
The PFN was formed mainly by former members of New Order
Ordre Nouveau (1960s)
Ordre Nouveau was a far-right movement created on December 15, 1969. The first president was the lawyer Jean-François Galvaire ....
(Ordre nouveau, 1969–1973), whom had refused to merge in the FN at its 1972 creation. New Order, dissolved by Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin
Raymond Marcellin
Raymond Marcellin was a French politician.- Biography :The son of a banker, he studied law at the University of Strasbourg and the University of Paris. He worked as a lawyer for three years, before being called into the army in September 1939. He was captured by the Wehrmacht, but managed to...
in 1973, was itself a successor to Occident
Occident (movement)
Occident was a French far-right militant political group, often described as fascist-leaning. A number of members of Occident later were prominent members of right-wing parties, and even obtained ministerial positions. The movement never had more than 550 members.- History :Founded by Pierre Sidos...
(1964–1968) and of the Union Defense Group (GUD, Groupe union défense).
Close to the Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
and "national-revolutionary" thesis, this tendency maintained links with the FN, despite some tensions. The GUD, in particular, had published the satiric monthly Alternative with the Youth Front (Front de la jeunesse), youth organization of the FN. They also had attempted alliances with other far-right parties in Europe, with New Order organizing the alliance "A Fatherland for Tomorrow" (Une patrie pour demain) with the Spanish Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
, the Italian Social Movement
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...
(MSI) and the German National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
.
This European strategy was continued by the PFN, who launched the Euroright alliance, with the MSI, the Spanish New Force and the Belgian PFN, for the 1979 European elections
European Parliament election, 1979
The 1979 European elections were parliamentary elections held across all 9 European Community member states. They were the first European elections to be held, allowing citizens to elect 410 MEPs to the European Parliament, and also the first international election in history.Seats in the...
. Headed by Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour was a lawyer and French nationalist politician. He was a candidate in the 1965 French presidential election when his campaign manager was Jean-Marie Le Pen. He won 1,260,208 votes, which was 5.2% of the total, giving him fourth place after De Gaulle, Mitterrand and...
, the PFN won 1.3% of the vote. This electoral failure prompted Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher was the pseudonym of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right journalist and politician. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in Marcel Déat's fascist party Rassemblement National Populaire under the Vichy regime...
and François Brigneau to quit the party and join Le Pen's National Front.
1981 Presidential election
The French far-right went divided to the 1981 presidential electionFrench presidential election, 1981
The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic....
, with both Pascal Gauchon (PFN) and Le Pen (FN) attempting, without success, to secure from mayors the 500 signatures necessary to present themselves as candidates. 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...
(Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
) won those elections, competing against Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
(Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
, RPR).
1983 elections and rise
These succeeding electoral defeats prompted the far-right to unify itself. In 1983, the FN managed to make its first electoral breakthrough, taking control of the town of DreuxDreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
. Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois was a French far-right politician, husband of Marie-France Stirbois. He has been associated with the first electoral breakthrough of the National Front, in Dreux in 1983....
, obtained 17% of the votes at the first round, for the FN municipal list. At the second round, he merged his list with Chirac's RPR list (headed by Jean Hieaux), enabling the right a victory against the left. Chirac supported the alliance with the far-right, claiming the Socialist Party, allied with the Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
in government, had no lessons to give.
This first electoral success was confirmed at the 1984 European elections
European Parliament election, 1984
The 1984 election to the European Parliament was the first since the inaugural election of 1979 and the 1981 enlargement of the European Community to include Greece. It was also the last before the accession of Spain and Portugal in 1987....
, the FN obtaining 10% of the votes. Two years later, the FN gained 35 deputies (nearly 10% of the votes) at the 1986 legislative elections, under the appellation of "Rassemblement national." These included the monarchist Georges-Paul Wagner
Georges-Paul Wagner
Georges-Paul Wagner was a French lawyer, monarchist and deputy of the far-right National Front .He was first an activist of the Action française monarchist movement, and then participated in 1971 to the creation of the Nouvelle Action française along with Bertrand Renouvin...
.
Internal disputes continued however to divise the far-right. Following the 1986 elections, which brought Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
as Prime minister, some hardliners inside the FN spin-off to create the French and European Nationalist Party
French and European Nationalist Party
The French and European Nationalist Party was a minor French far right political group founded in 1987. It was led by Claude Cornilleau and despite its name was not a political party in the conventional sense...
(PNFE, Parti Nationaliste Français et Européen), along with members of Mark Frederiksen's Third Position FANE
Fane
Fane may refer to:* Fane, Papua New Guinea, village associated with Simona Noorenbergh* Fane * Fane River in Ireland...
. Three former members of the PNFE were charged of having profanated, in 1990, a Jewish cemetery in Carpentras
Carpentras
Carpentras is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It stands on the banks of the Auzon...
.
Mégret's split, Le Pen's 2002 score and subsequent electoral fall
The most important split, however, was headed by Bruno MégretBruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret is a French Far-right politician. He is the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from political action.-Youth and studies:...
in 1999. Taking with him many elected members of the FN and electoral troops, he then created the National Republican Movement
National Republican Movement
The National Republican Movement is a French nationalist political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge alumni, Yvan Blot and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front on January 24, 1999.Although political observers have considered the MNR to...
(MNR). However, in view of the 2007 legislative elections
French legislative election, 2007
The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions...
, he accepted to support Le Pen's candidacy for the presidential election
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
.
During these presidential elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
only made 10.4%, compared to his stunning 16.9% finish in 2002
French presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
, during which he reached the second round, achieving 17.79% against 82.21% for Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
(Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
, RPR).
With only 1.85 % at the second round of the 2002 legislative elections, the FN failed to gain any seat in the National Assembly
Deputies of the 12th French National Assembly
List in alphabetical order of the deputies of the 12th French National Assembly .-A:* Mr. Jean-Pierre Abelin, UDF, Vienne* Mr. Jean-Claude Abrioux, UMP, Seine-Saint-Denis* Mr. Bernard Accoyer, UMP, Haute-Savoie* Ms. Patricia Adam, socialist, Finistère...
. At the 2007 presidential election
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
, Le Pen arrived fourth, with 10,4% of the votes at the first round, behind Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal , known as Ségolène Royal, is a French politician. She is the president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, a former member of the National Assembly, a former government minister, and a prominent member of the French Socialist Party...
and François Bayrou
François Bayrou
François Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
. Philippe de Villiers
Philippe de Villiers
Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers, born on 25 March 1949, is a French politician. He was the Mouvement pour la France nominee for the French presidential election of 2007. He received 2.23% of the vote, putting him in sixth place. As only the top...
, Catholic traditionalist candidate of the Movement for France
Movement for France
The Movement for France , abbreviated to MPF, is a French conservative and eurosceptic political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.The party is considered...
(especially present in the traditionalist Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
region), arrived sixth, obtaining 2,23% of the vote.
This electoral downfall of the FN was confirmed at the 2007 legislative elections, the FN obtaining only 0.08% of the votes at the second round, and therefore no seats.
Le Pen's succession
These electoral defeats, which contrasted with the high score obtained at the 2002 presidential elections, have caused financial problems to the FN, who was forced to sell its headquarters, the Paquebot, in Saint-CloudSaint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...
. Le Pen then announced, in 2008, that he would not compete again in presidential elections, leaving the way for the competition for the control of the FN between his daughter, Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen is a French politician, a lawyer by profession and the president of the Front National since 16 January 2011...
, whom he favored, and Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front far-right party, and a member of the European Parliament. He was chairman of the European Parliamentary group 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' in 2007, which was dissolved in November 2007 following the...
. The latter had been condemned in January 2007 for Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
, while Marine Le Pen attempted to follow a smoother strategy to give the FN a more "respectable" image.
Other minor groups
Other minor groups that are or have been active in the Fifth Republic include:- Unité RadicaleUnité RadicaleUnité Radicale was a French far-right political group close to the Third Position and National Bolshevism thesis. It was founded in June 1998 from the merger of Groupe Union Défense and Nouvelle Résistance/Jeune Résistance/Union des Cercles Résistance, issued from Nouvelle Résistance, and dissolved...
(one of its members, Maxime BrunerieMaxime BrunerieMaxime Brunerie is a man who attempted to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002 in Paris, during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées....
, tried to assassinate President Jacques ChiracJacques ChiracJacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
in 2002) - Bloc identitaireBloc identitaireThe Bloc Identitaire is a French nationalist political group. It was founded in 2003 by some former members of Unité Radicale and several other nationalist sympathizers, including Fabrice Robert, former Unité Radicale member, former elected representative of the National Front and also former...
, an off-shoot of Unité Radicale, dissolved after Brunerie's assassination attempt, which organizes so-called "identity soups" ("soupes identitaires"), that is "popular soups" with pork in order to exclude religious Jews and Muslims from them. - Parti Nationaliste Français et Européen (PNFE), a Pan-European nationalistPan-European nationalismThe idea that Europe should be united politically has been present in European culture since the Middle Ages, and inspired several proposals for some form of confederation. With the growth of nationalism in the 19th century, several pan-national ideas of Europe developed, some of them based on...
group with which Brunerie was also associated. - Parti des forces nouvellesParti des forces nouvellesParti des forces nouvelles or Party of New Forces was a French far right political party formed in November 1974 from the Comité faire front, a group of anti-Jean-Marie Le Pen dissidents who had split from the National Front .-Development:...
, an early anti-Le Pen faction of the Front National. - Réseau RadicalRéseau RadicalRadical Network was a French far right study group formed in June 2002, with a number of its early members coming from those who split from Unité Radicale that April, notably Christian Bouchet, Luc Bignot and Giorgio Damiani....
, a study group. - Troisième Voie, a Third PositionThird PositionThird Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
movement with links to the far right student movement Groupe Union Défense.
See also
- Breton Social-National Workers' MovementBreton Social-National Workers' MovementThe Breton Social-National Workers' Movement was a nationalist, separatist, and Fascist movement founded in 1941 by Théophile Jeusset. It emerged in Brittany from a deviationist faction of the Breton National Party; it disappeared the same year....