Action Française
Action Française (French pronunciation: [aksjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz], AF; English: French Action) is a French far-right monarchist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement.
French Action Action Française
The movement and the journal were founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois in 1899, as a nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus. Charles Maurras quickly joined Action française and became its principal ideologist. Under the influence of Maurras, Action française became royalist, counter-revolutionary (objecting to the legacy of the French Revolution), anti-parliamentary and pro-decentralisation, espousing corporatism, integralism and Catholicism.
Shortly after it was created, Action française tried to influence public opinion by turning its journal into a daily newspaper and by setting up other organizations. It was at its most prominent during the 1899–1914 period. In the inter-war period, the movement still enjoyed some prestige from support among conservative elites, but its popularity gradually declined as a result of the rise of fascism and of a rupture in its relations with the Catholic Church. During the Second World War, Action française supported the Vichy Regime and Marshal Philippe Pétain. After the fall of Vichy, its newspaper was banned and Maurras was sentenced to life imprisonment. The movement nevertheless continued in new publications and political associations, although with fading relevance as monarchism lost popularity, and French far-right movements shifted toward an emphasis on Catholic values and defense of classical French culture. It is seen by some as one progenitor of the current National Rally political party.[19][20] In 2023, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) released a report in which it classified the modern-day Action Française as an "antisemitic" and "religious nationalist" group.[21][22]
Ideology[edit]
The ideology of Action française was dominated by the precepts of Charles Maurras, following his adherence and his conversion of the movement's founders to royalism. The movement supported a restoration of the House of Bourbon and, after the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State, the restoration of Roman Catholicism as the state religion, all as rallying points in distinction to the Third Republic of France which was considered corrupt and atheistic by many of its opponents.
The movement advocated decentralisation (a "federal monarchy"), with the restoration of pre-Revolutionary liberties to the ancient provinces of France (replaced during the Revolution by the departmental system). It aimed to achieve a restoration by means of a coup d'état, probably involving a transitional authoritarian government.
Action française was not focused on denouncing one social or political group as the conspiratorial source of ills befalling France. Different groups of the French far-right had animuses against Jews, Huguenots (French Calvinists), and Freemasons. To these, Maurras added unspecific foreigners residing in France, who had been outside French law under the Ancien Régime, and to whom he invented a slur name derived from ancient Greek history: métèques. These four groups of "internal foreigners" Maurras called les quatre états confédérés and were all considered to be part of "Anti-France". He also opposed Marxism and the October Revolution, but antagonism against them did not have to be manufactured.
History[edit]
Founding and rise (1898–1914)[edit]
In 1899, Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois left the nationalist movement Ligue de la Patrie française and established a new movement, called Action française, and a new journal, Revue de l'Action française. This was their nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on the behalf of Alfred Dreyfus.[23]
Charles Maurras quickly joined Action française and became its principal ideologist. Under the influence of Maurras, Action française became monarchist, counter-revolutionary (objecting to the legacy of the French Revolution) and anti-democratic, and supported integralism and Catholicism. The Dreyfus affair gave some Catholics the impression that Catholicism is not compatible with democracy. Therefore, they regarded Action française as rampart of religion and the most fitting expression of the church doctrine regarding society.[23]
In its early years, Action française tried to influence public opinion and to spread its ideas. For example, it created related organisations, such as student groups.[24] The political organisation of the movement, the Ligue d'Action Française, was launched in the spring of 1905, as was the Action Française Federation of Students, directed by Lucien Moreau.[25]
L'Institut d'Action française was created in 1906 as an alternative institute for higher education.[24] In 1908 the movement's periodical was turned to a daily newspaper, called simply Action française.[23] Camelots du Roi, the movement's youth wing, was created in the same year to sell the newspaper in the streets. Its members also served as a paramilitary wing, providing security for meetings and engaging in street violence with political opponents. The newspaper's literary quality and polemical vigor attracted readers and made Maurras and the movement significant figures in French politics. By 1914, Action française was the best structured and the most vital nationalist movement in France.[24]
Judgment of political scientists[edit]
Classification as fascist[edit]
In 1965, the German historian Ernst Nolte claimed that Action française was fascist.[39] He considered Action française to be the first fascist party.
Certain present-day scholars disagree with Nolte's view. For example, in 1999, the British historian Richard Thurlow[40] claimed that "his [Nolte's] linking of Action française to the fascist tradition was misleading".[41] Later, René Rémond and Stanley G. Payne described the differences between Action française and Italian fascism.[23][42]
Influence on national syndicalism and fascism[edit]
In the books Neither Right nor Left[43] and The Birth of Fascist Ideology,[44] Zeev Sternhell claimed that Action française influenced national syndicalism and, consequently, fascism. According to Sternhell, national syndicalism was formed by the combination between the integral nationalism of Action française and the revolutionary syndicalism of Georges Sorel. National syndicalism spread to Italy, and was later a part of the doctrine of Italian fascist movement. In France, national syndicalism influenced the non-conformists of the 1930s. Based on the views of the non-conformists themselves, Sternhell argued that the non-conformists were actually a French form of fascism.
René Rémond's classification[edit]
Although it supported the Orléanist branch, according to historian René Rémond's categorization of French right-wing groups, AF would be closer to the legitimist branch, characterized by a complete rejection of all changes to France since the 1789 French Revolution. According to Rémond, supporters of the Orléanist branch tended to favour economic liberalism.