The French and European Nationalist Party (french: Parti nationaliste français et européen or PNFE) was a French
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
militant organization active between 1987 and 1999. Led by Claude Cornilleau until 1996, its slogan was "France first, white always" (''France d'abord, blanche toujours''). It had around a thousand sympathizers at its height.
History
The organization emerged in June 1985 as a splinter group of the
French Nationalist Party
The French Nationalist Party (french: Parti Nationaliste Français; PNF), is a far-right neo-fascist political movement established in 1983 by former National Front (FN) and Waffen-SS members around the magazine '' Militant.'' Inactive after t ...
,
and was officially announced in 1987 at Euroring, a European neo-Nazi conference, as ''Parti Nationaliste Français et Européen'' (PNFE).
The PNFE was made up of a mixture of former members of the outlawed
FANE, and of neo-Nazi hardliners who had been expelled from the
Front National
The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right:
Academic:
...
(FN) when
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015.
Le Pen graduated fro ...
took on a respectable image after winning a few parliamentary seats in the
1986 elections.
The PNFE quickly managed to establish various sections outside of Paris. It had a national publication, ''Tribune nationaliste'', established in October 1985,
and edited a magazine in each region: ''Charlemagne'' in the
Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Calais ...
, ''Le Chêne'' in
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...
, or ''Le Glaive'' in Paris.
In July 1989, the head of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais section and editor-in-chief of ''Charlemagne'', Jean Beaussart, was assassinated by his daughter after years of abuse.
Beaussart regularly beat and humiliated his daughters, forcing them each morning to perform the
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...
in front of a portrait of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, whom he had made them believe was their uncle. Ida Beaussart was eventually acquitted by the court.
The PNFE had a large
Nazi Skinhead
White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations an ...
following and has been blamed for a number of attacks on immigrants including the
1988 Sonacotra attack against immigrant workers' hostel in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
for which 18 members were convicted in 1989. Amongst those initially held was Serge Lecanu, who had led the ''Fédération professionnelle indépendante de la police'' (FPIP), a far right police trade union.
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, ''Committee of Inquiry on Racism and Xenophobia- Report on the Findings of the Inquiry'', 1991, pp. 29–30 In 1990,
Michel Lajoye, a PNFE member since 1988, received a life sentence for dropping a bomb in a
café
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non ...
owned by Arab immigrants.
On 10 May 1990, a Jewish cemetery at
Carpentras
Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; la, Carpentoracte) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. ...
was desecrated, leading to public uproar and a protest demonstration in Paris, attended by 200,000 persons, including French President
François Mitterrand. After several years of investigation, five people, among them three former members of the PFNE, confessed on 2 August 1996. On 5 June 1990, the PNFE magazine ''Tribune nationaliste'' was banned by the French authorities.
French
Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements:
* ...
Vincent Reynouard was a member of the PFNE and became briefly its secretary general in 1991. In January 1996, Erik Sausset replaced Claude Cornilleau as the president of the organization.
The group was compelled to dissolve in 1999.
Erik Sausset later became involved in the ''
Völkisch'' movement
Terre et Peuple. Another cadre of the PNFE, Didier Magnien, later joined
Unité Radicale
Unité Radicale was a French far-right political group close to the Third Position and National Bolshevism thesis. It was founded in June 1998 from the merger of Groupe Union Défense and Nouvelle Résistance/ Jeune Résistance/ Union des Cercle ...
, then migrated to Germany and turned into a member of the
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...
, in charge of the surveillance and repression of neo-Nazi activities.
Maxime Brunerie, who attempted to assassinate
Jacques Chirac in 2002 had been a member of the group between June and November 1998, leaving what he deemed to be an "agonizing party" to join instead the
Groupe Union Défense, renamed Unité Radicale early that year.
Ideology
The movement sought to establish a "
New Order" and dismissed the FN as a "so-called nationalist" party integrated to the system. Overtly racist, the group compared black people with animals and the hatred of ''
kike
The word ''kike'' () is an ethnic slur for a Jew.
Etymology
The earliest recorded use of the word dates to the 1880s. s'' is omnipresent in their writings.
European contacts
The PNFE had strong contacts with the
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
and Cornilleau was often a speaker at their annual meetings, being a close friend of
John Tyndall. They regularly attended international rallies, notably in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, where they cemented their links with the BNP as well as the
Vlaamse Militanten Orde.
The group also built up links with the
Vlaams Blok
''Vlaams Blok'' ( en, Flemish Block, or VB) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.Erk, 2005, pp. 493-502. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independen ...
and
Christian Worch in Germany. In Belgium they also co-operated with ''Renouveau nationaliste'', a minor group established by former members of the
Party of New Forces.
[Institute of Jewish Affairs, ''Antisemitism World Report 1994'', Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1994, pp. 14-15] In 1991, a sister party was established in Switzerland as the Parti Nationaliste Suisse et Européen, later replaced by a
Hammerskins
The Hammerskins (also known as Hammerskin Nation) are a white supremacist group formed in 1988 in Dallas, Texas. Their primary focus is the production and promotion of white power rock music, and many white power bands have been affiliated with ...
branch.
References
Bibliography
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{{Authority control
1987 establishments in France
1996 disestablishments in France
Defunct political parties in France
Neo-Nazism in France
French nationalist parties
Neo-Nazi political parties in Europe
Political parties disestablished in 1996
Political parties established in 1987
Pan-European nationalism
Far-right politics in Europe