1934 Montreux Fascist Conference - Participants

Participants

The first world conference of the CAUR convened at Montreux on 16 December. Participants from fascist organizations in 13 European countries attended, including Ion Mota of Romania's Iron Guard, Vidkun Quisling of Norway's Nasjonal Samling, George S. Mercouris of the Greek National Socialist Party, Gimenez Caballero of the Spanish Falange movement, Eoin O'Duffy of the Irish Blueshirts, Marcel Bucard of the French Mouvement Franciste, representatives from Lithuania's Tautininkai, the Portuguese Acção Escolar Vanguarda (Vanguard School Action, with observer status), headed by António Eça de Queiroz (son of the famous writer, and future head of the Emissora Nacional, the National Radio Station of Portugal), as well as delegates from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Notable in their absence were any representatives from Nazi Germany. The conference in Montreux occurred only six months after the assassination of the Austrofascist Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss by Nazi agents and the resulting diplomatic crisis between Italy and Germany. Likewise, Mussolini did not allow any official representative of the Italian Fascist Party attend the meeting, ostensibly in order to see what the conference could achieve before lending full official support. José Antonio Primo de Rivera, while allowing members of the Falange to participate, stated that the Falange as an organization would not be represented, as the CAUR was "not a Fascist movement". Other notable absences included the Austrian Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg and Sir Oswald Mosley of Great Britain.