History of far right movements in France

The far-right tradition in France founds its origins, as the distinction of left and right in politics itself, to the 1789 French Revolution.

Counter-revolutionaries and Legitimists

The first representants of this tendency were the counter-revolutionaries (Louis de Bonald, Joseph de Maistre, etc.), whose ideology would be politically translated in the Ultra-royalist movement, which imposed the White Terror after the Restauration. The "Chambre introuvable" dominated by them, and then Villèle's "Chambre retrouvée", which voted the 1830 Anti-Sacrilege Act, belong to this ultra group, "more monarchist than the king" ("plus royaliste que le roi"). After the 1830 July Revolution, they would be represented by the Legitimists.

The Third Republic from 1871 to 1914

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.

The May 16, 1877 crisis

Following the defeat of the Commune, the elections had brought upon a monarchist majority, divided into Legitimists and Orleanists, which conceived the republican institutions created by the fall of Napoleon III in 1870 as a transitory state. Until the May 16, 1877 crisis, the royalist movement dominated the legislature, thus creating the paradox of a Republic led by anti-republicans. The royalist deputies supported Marshall MacMahon, a declared monarchist of the legitimist party, as president of the Republic. His term was set to seven years - the time to find a compromise between the two rival royalist families.

In 1873, a plan to reset Henri, comte de Chambord, head of the Bourbon branch supported by Legitimists, back on the throne had failed over the comte's intransigency. President MacMahon was supposed to lead him to the National Assembly and have him acclaimed as King. However, the Comte de Chambord rejected this plan by the "white flag manifest" of July 5, 1871, reiterated by an October 23, 1873 letter, in which he explained that under no case would he abandon the white flag, symbol of the monarchy (with its fleur-de-lis), in exchange of the republican tricolor. Chambord's decision thus ruined the hopes of a quick restoration of the monarchy.

In 1875, the Orleanist Adolphe Thiers, known as the "repressor of the Commune," pragmatically rallied the Republic, and voted with the moderate Republicans (Opportunist Republicans) Jules Ferry and Léon Gambetta the Constitutional laws of the regime. The next year, the elections gave a large majority to the Republicans in the Assembly, but a one-vote majority to the monarchists in the Senate. With a royalist President, the conflict was inevitable.

The May 16, 1877 crisis was triggered by the royalist president MacMahon who dismissed the moderate Republican and president of the Council Jules Simon, leading to a conflict between the executive power and the legislative on one hand, and on the other hand between the advocates of a return to the "Ancien régime" and the Republicans. MacMahon dismissed the Assembly, but the new elections gave a crushing majority to the Republicans. The president resigned in 1879: the Republicans had won, while the parliamentary nature of the regime had been established. This was confirmed by Cardinal Lavigerie's toast in favour of the Rallying to the Republic of the Catholics.

A few years later, the Jules Ferry laws of 1881-82 implemented free, mandatory and laic education. These public education laws were a crucial step in firmly establishing the Third Republic. In 1883, the Comte de Chambord died, leading several Orleanists to follow on Adolphe Thiers' step and rally the Republic. Hereafter, only the Legitimists remained in the anti-Republican opposition.

The Dreyfus Affair and the foundation of the Action française

However, a few years later, a Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, 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 [ Winock, Michel (dir.), "Histoire de l'extrême droite en France" (1993)] .

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 Catholics were conservatives, a trait which continues to exist 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 Boulangiste crisis

During the Boulangisme crisis, Déroulède co-opted the ligue to support the general, alienating many Republican members. After Boulanger's exile in 1889 the Ligue was suppressed by the French government. Most of the far-right leagues of the Dreyfus Affair disappeared during before World War I, but would return on the scene in the interwar period.

Between the wars

During the interwar period, 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 Mussolini's Fascism. Finally, in 1933, the year Hitler gained power, 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 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.). In order to obtain arms from fascist Italy, the group assassinated two Italian antifascists, the Rosselli brothers, [ Stanislao G. Pugliese [http://www.jstor.org/pss/260963 Death in Exile: The Assassination of Carlo Rosselli] , "Journal of Contemporary History", 32 (1997), pp. 305-319] [M. Agronsky, "Foreign Affairs" 17 391 (1938)] on June 9, 1937, and sabotaged airplanes clandestinely supplied by the French government to the 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 [TIME Magazine [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758460,00.html Terrible Gravity] Monday, Nov. 29, 1937] .

6 February 1934

Far right leagues organized these riots which led to the fall of the Second Cartel des gauches. These leagues were then dissolved on 18 January 1936 by the Popular Front.

Vichy

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 catholique 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. [ [http://www.eka-partidocarlista.com/asesinatos.htm MONTEJURRA: LA OPERACIÓN RECONQUISTA Y EL ACTA FUNDACIONAL DE LAS TRAMAS ANTITERRORISTAS. Fuente "INTERIOR" Por Santiago Belloch] es icon ] [http://www.eka-partidocarlista.com/almiron.pdf Rodolfo Almirón, de la Triple A al Montejurra] , PDF es icon ] 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".

Fifth Republic

Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the Front National (FN) party in 1972, along with former OAS member Jacques Bompard, former Collaborationist Roland Gaucher, François Duprat, who introduced the negationist thesis to France [ Henry Rousso, "Les habits neufs du négationniste," in "L'Histoire" n°318, March 2007, pp.26-28 fr icon ] , and others nostalgics of Vichy France, Catholic fundamentalists, etc [http://www.rfi.fr/francais/actu/articles/081/article_45894.asp Le Pen, son univers impitoyable] , "Radio France Internationale", September 1, 2006 fr icon ] . 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-François 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).

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 FANE ("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 [ R. Hill & A. Bell, "The Other Face of Terror- Inside Europe’s Neo-Nazi Network", London: Collins, 1988, pp.186-189 ] .

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) [http://www.france-politique.fr/annuaire-extreme-droite.htm Annuaire de l'extrême droite en France] fr icon] . 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 of 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."

Alain de Benoist's "Nouvelle Droite" and the "Club de l'Horloge"

In the 1980s, Alain de Benoist 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 groups.

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.

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 Pen'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 Robert 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.

1981 Presidential election

The French far-right went divided to the 1981 presidential election, 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).

1983 elections and rise

These succeding electoral defeats prompted the far-right to unify itself. In 1983, the FN managed to make its first electoral breakthrought, taking control of the town of Dreux. 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 [ Franz-Olivier Giesbert, "La Tragédie du Président", 2006, p 37-38 ] .

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 [ [http://www.humanite.fr/1996-08-07_Articles_-La-profanation-de-Carpentras-a-ete-longuement-premeditee La profanation de Carpentras a été longuement préméditée] , "L'Humanité", 7 August 1996 fr icon] .

Mégret's split, Le Pen's 2002 score and subsequent electoral fall

The most important split, however, was headed by Bruno Mégret 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'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-Cloud. 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 [ [http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/politique/20080915.OBS1393/succession__le_pen_confie_preferer_sa_fille_a_bruno_gol.html Succession : Le Pen confie préférer sa fille à Bruno Gollnisch] , "Nouvel Observateur", 16 September 2008 ] . The latter had been condemned in January 2007 for Holocaust denial [ [http://www.lexpress.fr/info/quotidien/actu.asp?id=8443 Bruno Gollnisch condamné pour ses propos sur l'Holocauste] , REUTERS cable published by "L'Express" on January 18, 2007 — URL accessed on January 18, 2007 fr icon "délit de contestation de l'existence de crime contre l'humanité par paroles" ] , while Marine Le Pen attempted to follow a smoother strategy, in order 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 Radicale (one of its members, Maxime Brunerie, tried to assassinate President Jacques Chirac in 2002)
*Bloc identitaire, 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 nationalist group with which Brunerie was also associated.
*Parti des forces nouvelles, an early anti-Le Pen faction of the Front National.
*Réseau Radical, a study group.
*Troisième Voie, a Third Position movement with links to the far right student movement Groupe Union Défense.

References

Bibliography

*Winock, Michel (dir.), "Histoire de l'extrême droite en France" (1993)

See also

*Breton Social-National Workers' Movement