History of far right movements in France

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

1 Counter-revolutionaries and Legitimists
2 Dreyfus Affair and the Action française
3 6 February 1934
4 Vichy
5 Fourth Republic and the Algerian War
6 Fifth Republic
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 See also

[edit] 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.

[edit] Dreyfus Affair and the Action française

The monarchist Action française was created by Charles Maurras in 1898, in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair which shook the Third Republic (1871-1940) and 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 ^[1].

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.

Nationalist poet Paul Déroulède created in 1882 the anti-semitic Ligue des patriotes (Patriot's League), one of the first far-right league. It advocated 'revanche' (revenge) for the French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War. 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.

Many members of the OAS were part of the monarchist movement. Jean Ousset, Maurras' personal secretary, created the Cité catholique Catholic fundamentalist organization, which would include OAS members and found a branch in Argentina in the 1960s.

[edit] 6 February 1934

Main article: February 6, 1934 riots

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

[edit] Vichy

Further information: Vichy France

[edit] 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. ^[2] ^[3] 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".

[edit] 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 negationist thesis to France ^[4], and others nostalgics of Vichy France, neo-nazi pagans, Catholic fundamentalists, etc ^[5]. Le Pen presented himself for the first time in the 1974 presidential election, obtaining 0.74% ^[5].

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.

The National Front gained several deputies at the 1986 French legislative elections, under the appelation of "Rassemblement national." These included the monarchist Georges-Paul Wagner.

Bruno Mégret then headed a split from the FN, taking with him many elected members of the FN and electoral troops, in the creation of the rival National Republican Movement (MNR) in 1999. However, in view of the 2007 legislative elections, he accepted to support Le Pen's candidacy for the presidential election which is due a short time before.

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.