Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
– 5 November 1988,
Jouars-Pontchartrain
Jouars-Pontchartrain is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is approximately 35 kilometres from Paris. This city is famous for the Château de Pontchartrain.
Geography
The town of ...
) was a
French far-right
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
politician. Elected deputy mayor in 1983 of Dreux, a city of around 30,000 inhabitants at the time, he was one of the main architects, along with his wife
Marie-France Stirbois
Marie-France Stirbois (born Marie-France Charles on 11 November 1944 in Paris, died 17 April 2006 in Nice of cancer) was a French National Front politician, representing Dreux from 1989 to 1993, and a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 ...
, of the first electoral breakthrough of the National Front.
Biography
Early life and activism (1945–1976)
Born on 30 January 1945 in Paris, Jean-Pierre Stirbois came from a working-class family. As a teenager, he was became close to the pro-colonial paramilitary organization OAS-Métro-Jeunes.
Stirbois attended the University Panthéon-Assas. Aged 19 in 1964, he decided to get involved in politics, influenced by the outcomes of the Algerian War (1954–62). Stirbois then joined the far-right militant group
Occident
The Occident is a term for the West, traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Western world. It is the antonym of ''Orient'', the Eastern world. In English, it has largely fallen into disuse. The term ''occidental'' is often used to ...
and became the head of the youth wing in the national council of the " Tixier-Vignancour committees" during the 1965 presidential campaign.
One of the creators of Jeune Alliance, he co-founded in 1965 the organization Mouvement Jeune Révolution (MJR). In 1969 he was nominated secretary general of the movement, and he established in 1975 the Solidarist Union ("Union solidariste") to replace the MJR. Close to Aginter Press, he was condemned to a suspended one-year jail sentence after the discovery of arms and equipment for the production of explosives in his basement.
Member of the FN (1977–1988)
In 1977, Sirtois and his movement joined 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). Following the death of
François Duprat
François Duprat (26 October 1940 – 18 March 1978) was an essayist and politician, a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978. Duprat was one of the main architects in the introduct ...
the following year, he became the right-hand man of FN founding leader
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 ...
. Part of the solidarist wing of the party and a pro-
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
, Stirbois opposed the neo-fascist factions in the FN who accused him of secretly being a Jew. Stirbois dismissed them as "cheap Nazis" ("nazillons") and eventually managed to oust them from the party leadership. He supported at the same time an aggressive anti-immigrant political position, coining the expression "on les renverra" ("we will make them leave") in an interview.
In 1981 Stirbois became secretary-general of the FN. A candidate in the 1983 municipal election in Dreux (
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.invert the migratory flows". During the second round, the local mainstream right-wing parties Rally for the Republic (RPR) and
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
(UDF) agreed to form an alliance with the FN. Together they won the second round with 55% of the vote and Stirbois became deputy mayor of the city. Commonly called the "thunderclap of Dreux", the event was the first electoral breakthrough of the FN and is regarded as a cornerstone of the rise of the party.
Stirbois was elected MEP in the 1984 European election as a FN candidate. In 1986, the introduction of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
allowed him to enter the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
as a deputy for the Hauts-de-Seine. The rise of Stirbois led him to become a rival of
Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret (; born 4 April 1949) is a French former nationalist politician. He was the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from all political action.
Youth and studies
Born in Paris, Bruno Mégre ...
and Carl Lang in the party.
Labeling himself a "national-populist", the FN developed under his influence a strategy to attract left-wing voters: "those who traditionally vote left because they have always believed the left defends workers will gradually realize that the movement which best defends workers is the Front National." Between 1984 and 1986, the share of FN working class voters rose from 8 to 19%.
Death
Following the defeat of Le Pen in the 1988 presidential election, he tried to convince the FN to call for a vote for
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
OAS
OAS or Oas may refer to:
Chemistry
* O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis
Computers
* Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards
* OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification) ...
in a meeting in Dreux, claiming to be ready to "donate his skin in order to achieve his ideas" ("mettre sa peau au bout de ses idées"), Stirbois died in a car crash on 5 November 1988.
4,000 persons attended his funeral, including
Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot (29 June 1948 – 10 October 2018) was a French conservative politician. A founding member of the GRECE, he was also the co-creator and president of the Club de l'Horloge.
Biography
Born on 29 June 1948 in Saint-Mandé, Yvan Blot wa ...
,
Henry de Lesquen
Henry de Lesquen (born 1 January 1949) is a French politician. A retired official and former radio host, de Lesquen has been the president of the Carrefour de l'Horloge, a national liberal think tank, since 1985. A blogger and YouTuber since th ...
,
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis (born 22 June 1944 in Paris) is a French far-right politician and writer.
Biography
Early far-right activism
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis is the son of Greek painter 'Mayo' (Antoine Malliarakis) and of a French mother. He gr ...
Pierre Sidos
Pierre Sidos (6 January 1927 – 4 September 2020) was a French far right nationalist, neo-Pétainist, and antisemitic activist. One of the main figures of post-WWII nationalism in France, Sidos was the founder and leader of the national ...
, and
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 ...
, who delivered the
eulogy
A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as ...
.
Works
* ''Dossier immigration'' (with
Jean-François Jalkh
Jean-François Jalkh (; born 23 May 1957) is a French politician who is the current Member of the European Parliament for the National Rally, representing East France.
On 25 April 2017, after the resignation of Marine Le Pen as leader of the N ...
), National-Hebdo, 1985.
* ''Tonnerre de Dreux, l'avenir nous appartient'', National-Hebdo, 1988.