Jean-François Thiriart
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Jean-Francois Thiriart (1922—November 23, 1992) was a Belgian fascist politician.
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[edit] World War II
Initially a Socialist, Thiriart evolved into a Nationalist form of non-Marxist Socialism. In 1939 he joined the National Legion and was associated with Les Amis du grand Reich Allemand in 1940, both far right organisations which had ties with the German National Socialist Party during World War II. He served time in prison for his collaboration, and upon his release set up business as an optometrist.
[edit] Cold War syncretism
Thiriart returned to the political scene in the 1960s, after Belgium gave up its claim to Congo. Establishing links with French groups similarly opposed to decolonization, he eventually became a European Nationalist, convinced of the need for a united Europe. As a result, he formed Jeune Europe as a movement to reach out across Europe, soon founding branches in Italy, Spain and France.
With a policy that was both Anti-American and Anti-Soviet, Thiriart presented Europe as the true cradle of civilisation, and was opposed to unmitigated immigration and imperialism, supporting instead national liberation, sovereignty and self-determination for all Europeans and the so-called "allied ethnicities" of Europe. This particular view created Thiriart many foes, on both the orthodox right and left. Notwithstanding the interpretation of his ideals and his political trajectory, Thiriart denied that he was a Nazi and claimed to belong to the centre of the political spectrum. Whatever is to be made of the positioning of his ideas, Thiriart attempted to put them into practice by being instrumental in the formation of the National Party of Europe, an unsuccessful attempt at creating a Europe-wide nationalist party.
Seeking to support radical revolutionaries in Latin America and Black Power movements in the United States, Thiriart began to develop the idea of creating Political Soldiers, and set up training camps to facilitate indoctrination. He also became an admirer of Nicolae Ceauşescu, indicating a sympathy towards Stalinism that displayed strong Nationalist characteristics. The People's Republic of China was also admired for these same reasons.
[edit] National Bolshevism and later life
Thiriart moved towards National Bolshevism and in later life he worked closely with such exponents of this idea as Eduard Limonov. As well as being a member of the small Belgian Parti Communautaire National-Européen, Thiriart came to spend a lot of time in Russia where he saw the potential for an explosion in European Nationalism. He is the author of several books.
According to an article from Amnistia.net, Luc Jouret, founder of the Order of the Solar Temple with Joseph di Mambro, had helped Jean Thiriart organize a split in the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB) in the 1970s, thus creating the Parti Communautaire Européen - which then became the Parti Communautaire National-Européen. Bruno Fouchereau, author of La mafia des sectes and writer for Le Monde Diplomatique, quoted by Amnistia, has alleged that this Belgium "Nazi-Maoist group" was controlled by the SDRA-8, Belgium's branch of Gladio, the secret "stay-behind" NATO structure .
Thiriart died of a heart attack.
