Marcel Bucard

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Marcel Bucard (December 7, 1895, Saint-Clair-sur-Epte – March 13, 1946, Fort of Châtillon) was a French Fascist politician.

A soldier in World War I, Bucard became active in politics after 1918, initially as a member of Action Française (an Integralist royalist far right group) and then as a member of the overtly fascist and antisemitic Faisceau of Georges Valois.

In September 1933, Bucard founded his own group, the Mouvement Franciste - arguably the most extreme group of the time, and one financed by Benito Mussolini's government. On February 6, 1934, the francistes joined the other right-wing parties in the riots in front of the Palais Bourbon (a protest provoked by the Stavisky Affair, and possibly intended as a coup d'état). Subsequently, the Popular Front government banned his movement (as well as other Fascist ones) upon its emergence in 1936; Bucard was imprisoned briefly. His attempt to recreate the movement as a Party (Parti Franciste) in 1938 was without lasting success, as it too was outlawed.

After the Fall of France in World War II, and the start of the Nazi German Occupation and Vichy France, Bucard's Parti was again active (from 1941), this time as a collaborationist force. His role in the period was however limited, as he was usually absent due to suffering caused by old wounds; nonetheless, he was the co-founder of the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme.

In 1946, after the German defeat, Bucard was sentenced to death for treason, and executed a month later.