History of Far-right Movements in France - Between The Wars

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 from 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 Benito Mussolini's Fascism. Finally, in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany, 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 from the leagues, a group of Neosocialists (Marcel Déat, Pierre Renaudel, etc.) were excluded in November 1933 from the French Section of the Workers' International (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.). To obtain arms from fascist Italy, the group assassinated two Italian antifascists, the Rosselli brothers, on June 9, 1937, and sabotaged airplanes clandestinely supplied by the French government to the Second 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.