Rassemblement national populaire

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Emblem of the RNP

Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP, German: Nationaler Vereinigung des Volks) was a right-wing extremist French party that advocated collaboration with the German occupation forces under the Vichy regime . The party was founded in 1941 by Marcel Déat and was close to both the ideas of Italian fascism and French neo-socialism . With the end of the German occupation of France in the summer of 1944 and the flight of the party founder to Germany, the RNP dissolved.

history

The founder and dominant figure in the RNP was Marcel Déat. Déat was expelled from the French section of the Workers' International in 1933 and then founded his own PSDF party , with which he briefly obtained a ministerial post in the Sarraut cabinet in 1936 . In the summer of 1940, the German Wehrmacht defeated the French Army and the British Expeditionary Corps (BEF) in the western campaign and France capitulated. After the proclamation of the Vichy regime , Déat first proposed the formation of a French unity party . In December 1940, the French police briefly arrested Déat.

An RNP member occupying an office of the pro-Jewish LICA (April 1941)

In February 1941, Déat finally founded the RNP, which, alongside the Parti populaire français (PPF) of Jacques Doriot and the Parti Franciste of Marcel Bucard, was to become the most important political representatives of the French collaboration . The German occupation authorities, in the person of the political head of the propaganda department, Ernst Achenbach , ordered the merger of RNP and the far right MSR from Eugène Deloncle , a member of the terrorist Cagoule . The first joint governing body of RNP-MSR consisted of two representatives from RNP and three from MSR: Déat, Jean Vanor , Eugène Deloncle, Jean Fontenoy and Jean Goy .

The merger of RNP and MSR proved to be a failure. In part, this was a consequence of the different political origins of the members: the RNP recruited mainly from former supporters of the French left , while the MSR members came from the extreme right . So there was no mixing of RNP and MSR. Instead, the MSR de facto retained its independence within the RNP-MSR and formed the party's security service. On August 27, 1941, Paul Collette attempted an assassination attempt on Pierre Laval , Prime Minister in the Pétain cabinet , and Marcel Déat. Déat then accused the MSR of being the mastermind behind the attack. In October 1941, the MSR was excluded from the RNP, which resulted in a phase of reorganization of the RNP until the beginning of 1942.

The ideology of the RNP was clearly fascist , which was reflected in its anti-Semitic and racist policies and great admiration for Nazi Germany . However, there were differences over the orientation of the PPF of Jacques Doriot : The RNP held certain Republican principles as the General option , free access to education and anti-clericalism and also advocated appropriate symbolic gestures such as the preservation Mariannen statues, in town halls on. These political ideas created constant conflict between the RNP and the more reactionary elements of the Vichy government, which were close to the révolution nationale and originated from the monarchist ultra-right Action française .

The RNP tactically supported Pierre Laval and criticized the “Vichy reactionaries” and the PPF. Marcel Déat maintained close relations with the German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz , while Doriot oriented himself towards the SS . After Laval re-entered the Vichy government in April 1942, Déat went to great lengths to create a unified party of collaboration, whose sole leadership he sought. In November 1942, RNP leaders Déat and Georges Albertini met with MSR leaders like Georges Soulès . As a result of this meeting, the RNP leadership founded the Front Révolutionnaire National (FRN), which, with the exception of the Doriot party PPF, brought together the most important collaboration parties: RNP, MSR, Parti Franciste, Groupe Collaboration , Jeunes de l'Europe Nouvelle and the Comité d 'Action Antibolchévique .

Déat also won over Jean Fossati , General Secretary of the PPF, for his cause . Déat appointed Henri Barbé , who comes from the PPF, to head the FRN . Ultimately, however, the PPF was a failure.

In March 1944, Déat was appointed Minister for Labor and National Solidarity. He took this opportunity to appoint RNP supporters as ministerial assistants, including Georges Albertini , Georges Dumoulin , Ludovic Zoretti and Gabriel Lafaye . From this point on, however, Déat concentrated more on his role as minister and neglected the RNP.

After the landing in Normandy and the breakthrough of the Allies during the Battle of Falaise , the capture of Paris was foreseeable. Déat fled to Germany on August 17, 1944, where he found accommodation with other members of the Pétain government in Sigmaringen . Of the RNP members, only Roland Gaucher, who had headed the RNP's youth organization, accompanied him there.

organization

At the time of its greatest success, the RNP had up to 30,000 members. Other data speak of only 2,638 party members, of whom just under 13 percent were industrial workers.

The main publication of the RNP was the magazine Le National Populaire , which was directed by Roland Gaucher. The party was also supported by Déat's daily newspaper L'Œuvre .

The youth organization of the RNP was the Jeunesses nationales populaires (JNP). a. was directed by Roland Silly and Gaucher. Gaucher was a co-founder of the Front National in 1972 .

Well-known RNP members

The RNP were led by a permanent commission of 15 members. In February 1943 these included:

Excluded were u. a .:

Other RNP members:

literature

Web links

Commons : Rassemblement National Populaire  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean-Paul Cointet, Hitler et la France, Perrin, Paris 2014, p 164
  2. ↑ Pascal Ory : Les collaborateurs: 1940-1945 . Édition du Seuil, Paris 1976, ISBN 2-02-004585-0 .
  3. ↑ Le Marec-Lambert
  4. ^ David Carroll, Jaap Querido, Robert J. Soucy: 'France's Hollow Years': An Exchange . New York Review of Books , Volume 43, No. 13, Aug. 8, 1996.
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cndp.fr
  6. ↑ Nonna Mayer, Mariette Sineau: France: The Front National . In: Helga Amsberger (Ed.): Right-wing extremist parties . Leske & Budrich, Leverkusen 2002, p. 4 (pdf; 264 kB).
  7. ^ Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon: Roland Gaucher, obituary. Le Monde , August 1, 2007