National Popular Rally
Encyclopedia
The National Popular Rally was one of the main Collaborationist parties
under the Vichy regime of World War II
. It was created in February 1941 by Marcel Déat
and was heavily inspired by Fascism
.
, a Neo-Socialist expelled from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in November 1933 and former Minister, first proposed to create a single state party during the 1940 summer, immediately following the proclamation of the Vichy regime. Briefly arrested by the French police on 13 December 1940, he finally created the RNP in February 1941, which became one of the primary Collaborationist parties, along with Jacques Doriot
's French Popular Party (PPF) and Marcel Bucard
's Francisme.
Immediately, the German authorities
imposed a fusion between Marcel Déat's RNP and the far-right Social Revolutionary Movement (MSR) of Eugène Deloncle
, an inheritor of the Cagoule
terrorist group The first committee of direction of the RNP-MSR was composed of two RNP members and three MSR members: Marcel Déat, Jean Fontenoy
, Jean Van Ormelingen (alias Jean Vanor), Eugène Deloncle and Jean Goy.
However, the fusion between the RNP and the MSR was a failure, in part because Déat's RNP recruited mainly among former members of the French Left, while the MSR was from the beginning located on the far-right of the political spectrum. The MSR conserved de facto its autonomy inside the RNP and was mainly charged of forming the RNP's security service. After the assassination attempt of Paul Collette against Pierre Laval
, Marshal Philippe Pétain
's prime minister, and Marcel Déat on 27 August 1941, the latter accused the MSR of having attempted to eliminate him. Thereafter, the MSR was excluded from the RNP in October 1941, leading to the reorganization of the RNP (and exclusion of elements close to the MSR) until the first months of 1942.
of the RNP was clearly of a fascist nature, advocating anti-Semitic and racist policies and sharing a strong admiration for Nazi Germany
. Despite this, it differed from Jacques Doriot
's French Popular Party (PPF) in that it maintained the principle of universal suffrage
, public education, anti-clericalism
or the conservation of sculptures of Marianne
, a Republican
symbol, in the townhalls . Those ideas created constant conflicts between the RNP and more reactionary
elements of Vichy who also supported the Révolution nationale
("National Revolution") and had been trained in the Action française
monarchist movement.
On a tactic level, the RNP supported Pierre Laval and criticized the "Vichy reactionaries" and the PPF. Marcel Déat maintained close links with the German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz
, whilst Doriot turned himself towards the SS. AFter Laval's return to government in April 1942 and the Nazi occupation of the Southern Zone in November 1942, Déat focused all his efforts on creating a single party of the Collaboration which would permit him to impose himself as its sole leader. In November 1942, the leaders of the RNP, Déat and Georges Albertini, met with MSR leaders such as Georges Soulès. Following this meeting, the RNP created the National Revolutionary Front (Front révolutionnaire national, FRN) which gathered the main Collaborationist parties, apart of Doriot's PPF. The FRN thus included the RNP-Labour Social Front, the MSR, the Parti franciste, the Groupe Collaboration, the Jeunes de l'Europe nouvelle and the Comité d’action antibolchévique (Anti-Bolshevik Action Committee). Déat furthermore managed to gain to his side the secretary of the PPF, Jean Fossati, and named to the head of the FRN Henri Barbé
, issued from the PPF. However, the FRN finally was a failure.
In March 1944, Déat was named Minister of Labour and of National Solidarity, and took as assistants the RNP leaders (Georges Albertini, Georges Dumoulin, Ludovic Zoretti, Gabriel Lafaye, etc.) From then on, he focused more on his ministry tasks than on the organization of the RNP.
On 17 August 1944, Déat took refuge in Nazi Germany, almost alone. Roland Gaucher
, in charge of the youth organisation of the RNP, would also accompany Pétain in Sigmaringen
.
, it had only 2,638 party members, of whom only 12.8 percent were industrial workers .
Its mouthpiece, directed by Roland Gaucher
, was Le National Populaire, but the party was also supported by Déat's daily, L'Œuvre
.
The youth organisation (Jeunesse Populaire Française
, JNP) was headed by Roland Silly, Roland Gaucher
(future co-founder of the National Front in 1972) and eight other personalities.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
under the Vichy regime of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It was created in February 1941 by 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...
and was heavily inspired by 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...
.
February-October 1941: the RNP-MNR period
Marcel DéatMarcel 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...
, a Neo-Socialist expelled from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in November 1933 and former Minister, first proposed to create a single state party during the 1940 summer, immediately following the proclamation of the Vichy regime. Briefly arrested by the French police on 13 December 1940, he finally created the RNP in February 1941, which became one of the primary Collaborationist parties, along with Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
's French Popular Party (PPF) and Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...
's Francisme.
Immediately, the German authorities
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
imposed a fusion between Marcel Déat's RNP and the far-right Social Revolutionary Movement (MSR) of Eugène Deloncle
Eugène Deloncle
Eugène Deloncle was a French engineer and Fascist leader, and the adoptive father of Jacques Corrèze....
, an inheritor of the Cagoule
Cagoule
A cagoule, cagoul, kagoule or kagool is the British English term for a lightweight , weatherproof raincoat or anorak with a hood, which often comes in knee-length....
terrorist group The first committee of direction of the RNP-MSR was composed of two RNP members and three MSR members: Marcel Déat, Jean Fontenoy
Jean Fontenoy
Jean Fontenoy was a French journalist, fascist politician and collaborator with Nazi Germany.Born in Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, Fontenoy worked as a journalist for the Havas news agency from 1924 to the mid 1930s in Russia then China...
, Jean Van Ormelingen (alias Jean Vanor), Eugène Deloncle and Jean Goy.
However, the fusion between the RNP and the MSR was a failure, in part because Déat's RNP recruited mainly among former members of the French Left, while the MSR was from the beginning located on the far-right of the political spectrum. The MSR conserved de facto its autonomy inside the RNP and was mainly charged of forming the RNP's security service. After the assassination attempt of Paul Collette against Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval was a French politician. He was four times President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government, signing orders permitting the deportation of...
, Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
's prime minister, and Marcel Déat on 27 August 1941, the latter accused the MSR of having attempted to eliminate him. Thereafter, the MSR was excluded from the RNP in October 1941, leading to the reorganization of the RNP (and exclusion of elements close to the MSR) until the first months of 1942.
The RNP without the MSR (after October 1941)
The ideologyIdeology
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 the RNP was clearly of a fascist nature, advocating anti-Semitic and racist policies and sharing a strong admiration for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Despite this, it differed from Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
's French Popular Party (PPF) in that it maintained the principle of universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
, public education, 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...
or the conservation of sculptures of Marianne
Marianne
Marianne is a national emblem of France and an allegory of Liberty and Reason. She represents the state and values of France, differently from another French cultural symbol, the "Coq Gaulois" which represents France as a nation and its history, land, culture, and variety of sport disciplines in...
, a Republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
symbol, in the townhalls . Those ideas created constant conflicts between the RNP and more reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
elements of Vichy who also supported the Révolution nationale
Révolution nationale
The Révolution nationale was the official ideological name under which the Vichy regime established by Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940 presented its program...
("National Revolution") and had been trained in 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...
monarchist movement.
On a tactic level, the RNP supported Pierre Laval and criticized the "Vichy reactionaries" and the PPF. Marcel Déat maintained close links with the German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz
Otto Abetz
Dr. Heinrich Otto Abetz was the German ambassador to Vichy France during World War II.-Early years:Abetz was born in Schwetzingen on May 26, 1903. He was the son of an estate manager, who died when Otto was only 13...
, whilst Doriot turned himself towards the SS. AFter Laval's return to government in April 1942 and the Nazi occupation of the Southern Zone in November 1942, Déat focused all his efforts on creating a single party of the Collaboration which would permit him to impose himself as its sole leader. In November 1942, the leaders of the RNP, Déat and Georges Albertini, met with MSR leaders such as Georges Soulès. Following this meeting, the RNP created the National Revolutionary Front (Front révolutionnaire national, FRN) which gathered the main Collaborationist parties, apart of Doriot's PPF. The FRN thus included the RNP-Labour Social Front, the MSR, the Parti franciste, the Groupe Collaboration, the Jeunes de l'Europe nouvelle and the Comité d’action antibolchévique (Anti-Bolshevik Action Committee). Déat furthermore managed to gain to his side the secretary of the PPF, Jean Fossati, and named to the head of the FRN Henri Barbé
Henri Barbé
-Life:A metallurgical worker, at 15 he joined the Young Socialists. Attending the Third International, he naturally opted for the Communist Party, at the split of the Congress of Tours.In 1926, he was promoted to secretary general of the Young Communists....
, issued from the PPF. However, the FRN finally was a failure.
In March 1944, Déat was named Minister of Labour and of National Solidarity, and took as assistants the RNP leaders (Georges Albertini, Georges Dumoulin, Ludovic Zoretti, Gabriel Lafaye, etc.) From then on, he focused more on his ministry tasks than on the organization of the RNP.
On 17 August 1944, Déat took refuge in Nazi Germany, almost alone. 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...
, in charge of the youth organisation of the RNP, would also accompany Pétain in Sigmaringen
Sigmaringen
Sigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....
.
Organisation of the RNP following October 1941
The RNP had at maximum 30,000 members . According to the US historian Robert SoucyRobert Soucy
Robert Soucy is an American historian, specializing in French fascist movements between 1924 and 1939, French fascist intellectuals Maurice Barrès and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, European fascism, twentieth century European intellectual history, and Marcel Proust's aesthetics of...
, it had only 2,638 party members, of whom only 12.8 percent were industrial workers .
Its mouthpiece, directed by 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...
, was Le National Populaire, but the party was also supported by Déat's daily, L'Œuvre
L'Œuvre
L'œuvre is the fourteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola. It was first serialized in the periodical Gil Blas beginning in December 1885 before being published in novel form by Charpentier in 1886....
.
The youth organisation (Jeunesse Populaire Française
Jeunesse Populaire Française
Jeunesse Populaire Française was a fascist youth movement created by Jacques Doriot and connected to his Parti Populaire Français. They wore a blue uniform...
, JNP) was headed by Roland Silly, 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...
(future co-founder of the National Front in 1972) and eight other personalities.
Primary members of the RNP (after October 1941)
The RNP was directed by a permanent commission of 15 members. According to a February 1943 list, these included- Président : Marcel DéatMarcel DéatMarcel 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...
- General secretary : Georges Albertini(former secretary of the Jeunesses socialistes, future creator of the Est-Ouest magazine)
- Vice-president (from January 1943) : Maurice Levillain (Neo-Socialist)
- Vice-président (from January 1943) : Michel Brille (former deputy of the Democratic AllianceDemocratic Republican AllianceThe Democratic Republican Alliance was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta, such as Raymond Poincaré who would be president of the Council in the 1920s...
). - Henri BarbéHenri Barbé-Life:A metallurgical worker, at 15 he joined the Young Socialists. Attending the Third International, he naturally opted for the Communist Party, at the split of the Congress of Tours.In 1926, he was promoted to secretary general of the Young Communists....
(former member of the French Communist PartyFrench Communist PartyThe 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...
's political bureau, excluded in 1934 and general secretary of the PPF from 1936 to 1939). - René Benedetti (Neo-socialist)
- Francis Desphilippon
- Georges Dumoulin
- Emile Favier (Neo-Socialist)
- Jacques Guionnet
- Gabriel Lafaye (Neo-Socialist, state secretary in Camille ChautempsCamille ChautempsCamille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council .-Career:Described as "intellectually bereft", Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, and a Radical deputy in 1919...
's government in 1938) - Barthélémy Montagnon (former SFIO deputy,expelled in 1933, then Neo-Socialist)
- Georges Rivollet (former Minister of War Veterans in right-wing governments of 1934-35).
- Roland Silly (former member of the SFIO).
- Ludovic Zoretti (trade-unionist).
Expelled personalities
- Jean Goy (conservative) and Charles SpinasseCharles SpinasseCharles Spinasse was a French politician. He served as mayor of Égletons from 1929 to 1944 and again from 1965 to 1977. He belonged to the French Section of the Workers' International . In 1938, he served as France's minister of budget....
(Minister of the Popular FrontPopular 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...
), both expelled in 1942 on charges of being too "moderate." - René Château (Radical-Socialist) expelled in 1943.
Other RNP personalities
- François Brigneau (future co-founder of the National Front )
- Pierre CélorPierre CélorPierre Célor was a member of the French Communist Party from 1923, becoming one of the four secretaries of its Central Committee in 1929, beside Maurice Thorez and Henri Barbé. However, he fell into disgrace after the Comintern and in 1942 he joined the Parti populaire français of Jacques Doriot...
- Roland GaucherRoland GaucherRoland 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...
(1919-2007), in charge of the RNP's youth organisation and of the RNP Parisian section from May to November 1943 . Future founder of the National Front in 1972. - André Grisoni
- Fernand Hamard
- Henri Jacob
- Paul Perrin
Sources
- Pierre-Philippe Lambert and Le Marec, Organisation Mouvements et unités de l'État français Vichy 1940-1944, Paris : Éditions Grancher, 1992.
- Pascal Ory, Les Collaborateurs 1940-1945. Paris : Le Seuil, 1976.
- Reinhold Brender, Marcel Déat und das Rassemblement National Populaire, Ed. Oldenbourg [Munich], [1992].
External links
- Documentary films on the INAINAINA as an acronym may refer to: by IOC country code* Indian National Army was an Indian nationalist force during World War II aimed at overthrowing British rule over India* Indian Naval Academy* INA, a division of the Schaeffler Group...
's website