Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne

GRECE logo

The Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne ("Research and Study Group for European Civilization"), also known by its French acronym GRECE (French for "Greece") is an ethnonationalist think-tank, founded in 1968 by the journalist and writer Alain de Benoist.

GRECE distinguishes itself from other traditionalist conservative organizations in displaying specific interest for Germanic and Nordic cultures, rejection of Christianity and monotheism, and advocating neopaganism. Some critics called it a new form of neo-fascism.

History

GRECE was created in January 1968 by forty far-right activists coming from movements such as Europe-Action, the review and the circle organized around Dominique Venner and Jean Mabire, the Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN), the National Movement of Progress (MNP) and the Rassemblement européen pour la liberté (REL). Alain de Benoist was among the founders, who intended to create an intellectual think-tank to influence French conservative politics. A number of journalists were members of sympathisers of the GRECE, writing in the reviews Éléments and Nouvelle École.

Several GRECE members founded the éditions Copernic in September 1976, which published writings of authors seen as "precursors", such as Louis Rougier, Oswald Spengler or Julius Evola. GRECE favorized contact with elite circles by organizing conferences and meetings. It also partly funded circles which revolved around itself, such as the Pareto circle at Sciences-Po, the Galilei circle in Dijon, the Jean Médecin circle in Nice, the Henry de Montherlant circle in Bordeaux, CLOSOR (Comité de liaison des officiers et sous-officiers de réserve, a military circle), GENE (Groupe d'études pour une nouvelle éducation, Study Group For a New Education), etc. GRECE members entered in Valeurs Actuelles and Le Spectacle du monde, French magazines owned by Raymond Bourgine, a conservative reporter and politician.

Several members of GRECE, including Benoist himself, joined the redaction of the Le Figaro Magazine, created in 1978 by Louis Pauwels, who had just arrived at the head of this magazine produced by the conservative newspaper Le Figaro and was the chief of Le Figaro's cultural pages. Louis Pauwels invited Patrice de Plunkett (who was named vice-editor), Jean-Claude Valla, Yves Christen, Christian Durante, Michel Marmin, Grégory Pons, who were all members of GRECE. GRECE maintained its strong influence on Le Figaro Magazine until 1981. It claims that it had close to 4,000 members at the end of the 1970s, although this number is probably overestimated.^[1]

GRECE and the Club de l'Horloge were targets of a hostile press campaign in 1979, denouncing the resurgence of a "new far right" elements in the cluster of the French New Right (Nouvelle Droite). GRECE and the Club de l'Horloge, though, had different aims, and few members in common, though the president of the Club de l'Horloge, Yvan Blot, was a member of GRECE for some time. The Nouvelle Droite was targeted later on, by newspapers including Le Monde, the satirical publication Le Canard Enchaîné and Libération.

In the 80s, Benoist notably displayed an interest in Third World countries, but he also professed anti-liberal and anti-American ideas. Several notable members quit GRECE at this point, notably Pierre Vial, who joined the Front national, or Guillaume Faye, who pursued a career in journalism before coming back to politics in 1998, with radical ideas clashing with the more consensual theses now defended by Benoist.

In spite of these resignations, most members do not have a high opinion of the Front National, which contains Catholic traditionalists whose views are incompatible with the pagan intellectuals of the GRECE.

Philosophical themes

The publication of GRECE feature many articles on political philosophy, taking a lead from such authors as Carl Schmitt, Julien Freund, Vilfredo Pareto, Ernst Jünger, and ideologies such as communism, nationalism and liberalism. Other topics regularly discussed are on identity and culture, religion, racism and anti-racism, physics, biology, and economics.

In the last years, GRECE has developed an idea of a politically powerful Europe, which wouldn't suffer from the influences of "neoliberalism" and the United States, seen as the "representant of the dominant ideology of Modernity", trying to work on such ideas of localism, environmentalism and communitarianism. In 1999, GRECE published a manifesto by Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier, the Manifeste pour une nouvelle culture, that was a synthesis of some of its work.

Publications

GRECE edits two journals: Éléments and Nouvelle École, published by Editions du Labyrinthe. It also publishes a report on its annual conference.

See also

• TeKoS

References

1. ^ See Ghislaine Desbuissons, La "Nouvelle Droite" (1968-1974). Contribution à l'étude des idées de droite en France, thèse de doctorat en sciences politiques, IEP de Grenoble, 1984. (French)

External links

• (French) Official site