What the French Action? – Le Figaro

FOCUS – This Saturday was held in Paris a conference of the French Action entitled “I am a royalist, why not you? “To be attended Robert Ménard and Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. Back to the story of a royalist movement born during the Dreyfus affair.

“ All that is national is ours “proclaim the militants of the French Action (AF) for more than a century. This political movement classified the far right of the political spectrum was born in 1898 in the context of the Dreyfus affair, which tears the French between supporters of the unjustly condemned Jewish captain and defender of the honor of the French army. Founded by Henri Vaugeois and Maurice Pujo, the movement takes a position clearly anti-Dreyfus. He then became the title of a newspaper which appears in France from 1908 to 1944. The mastermind of the French Action becomes the writer and journalist Charles Maurras, which converts the movement in defense of the monarchy. It details the great thinkers of the revolution against Maistre, Bonald, Burke, to which he adds the nationalist thought, traditionally ignored by royalists.

“Nationalism integral” and anti-Semitism

His thought is summarized in three formulas. First the “integral nationalism” : the idea of ​​a rational and consistent defense of the idea of ​​nation and defending the “real country” rooted in local traditions against a “Jacobinism” abstract and centralizing revolutionary. Then the “politics first” , which reflects the absolute primacy of the political over the morality or religion. Finally the “by all means” , which means that all legal or illegal means (but “honest”) must be used to seize power.

Maurrassians defend “neo-royalism” , that is to say they are not royalists by tradition, but by “reason”, because they feel that royalty would be more effective to political action. So they say “monarchist because nationalists”. Despite the agnosticism of Maurras, the movement claims of Catholicism. But it will be officially condemned by the Church in 1926. After advocated “sacred union” with the Republicans during the war of 14, AF continues to grow in the 1930s, where the extreme right leagues multiply. During the 6 February 1934 crisis, which Charles Maurras remains behind, twenty FA militants were killed in the bloody suppression of a demonstration unparliamentary.

A revival relative

at the height of his fame, Maurras was elected to the French Academy in 1938, to be written off in 1945, after having supported the Vichy regime and the anti-Jewish measures of Pétain. It hit national indignity and imprisonment. He said: “This is the revenge of Dreyfus!”. He died in 1952, which will sign the slow decline of a marginalized movement. The French Action’s political movement has given birth to many literary and intellectual figures: the novelist Leon Daudet, the historian Jacques Bainville or writer Pierre Boutang

In recent years, especially for the AKI. All the French Action experiencing a revival. The antenna of Aix-en-Provence, near Martigues where is buried Charles Maurras, multiplies the spectacular actions. The movement boasts 3000 members. Today the “peddlers of the King” defending as the “integral ecology” that the fight against Tafta and the fight against “immigration invasion”. They held a symposium Saturday, May 7th in Paris entitled “I am a royalist, why not you?”. The title of “invited Republicans” will include present Robert Ménard and Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. The latter is popular among French circles of Action for its Catholic-nationalist positions.