Action française (, AF; ) is a French far-right, monarchist, and nationalist political movement with strong historical connections to Roman Catholicism. It sought the restoration of French national unity and pride under a restored monarchy and, under the influence of its principal ideologist Charles Maurras, developed a counter-revolutionary opposition to the legacy of the French Revolution, anti-parliamentarianism, support for decentralisation, corporatism, integralism, and Roman Catholicism.
The movement arose in the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair. Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois founded the movement and its associated journal, L'Action française, in 1899 as a nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus. Maurras soon joined and became its principal ideologist. The journal was converted into a daily newspaper in 1908, and the movement also created other organizations in an effort to influence public opinion. The paper was sold by its youth organization, the Camelots du Roi. Action française was at its most prominent between 1899 and 1914.
The movement conceived France as possessing a national soul and character which, in its view, had been damaged by the Republic through the place it accorded to Jews, foreigners, Freemasons, and Protestants. Although leading figures, particularly Maurras, included atheists and freethinkers, Action française valued the conservative traditionalism of Roman Catholicism and what it regarded as the Church's powerful capacity for social control. This attracted many Roman Catholics, while the extremity of the movement's views, especially in the context of the rise of other fascist movements in Europe, alarmed others. Attempts to secure its condemnation by Rome were delayed by the First World War, but Roman Catholic involvement in the movement was prohibited in 1926. During the interwar period it retained some prestige through support among conservative elites, but its popularity gradually declined amid the rise of fascism and the rupture in its relations with the Catholic Church.
During the Second World War, Action française revived under and supported the Vichy regime of Marshal Philippe Pétain between 1940 and 1944. After the fall of Vichy, its newspaper was banned. Maurras was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1944, released in 1951, and died in 1952, while he was formally reprieved in 1952.
The movement nevertheless continued after 1945 through new publications and political associations, although its importance declined as monarchism lost popularity and the French far right increasingly emphasized Catholic values and the defence of traditional French culture. It has been regarded by some as a progenitor of the contemporary National Rally political party.
History Founding and rise (1898–1914) In 1899, Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois left the French nationalist movement Ligue de la Patrie française and established a new one, called Action française, and its official journal, Revue de l'Action Française. This was their nationalist reaction against the intervention of left-wing intellectuals on the behalf of Alfred Dreyfus.
The royalist militant Charles Maurras quickly joined Action Française and became its principal ideologist. Under the influence of Maurras, the movement became royalist, counter-revolutionary (objecting to the legacy of the French Revolution), anti-parliamentary, and pro-decentralization, espousing corporatism, integralism, and Roman Catholicism. The Dreyfus affair gave some French Catholics the impression that Roman 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.
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. 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. L'Institut d'Action française was created in 1906 as an alternative institute for higher education. In 1908 the movement's periodical was turned to a daily newspaper, called simply Action Française. 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 had become the best structured and the most vital nationalist movement in France.
First World War and aftermath (1914–1926)
During the First World War, Action Française supported the Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and the will to defeat the Germans. France's victory in the war and the movement's anti-German intransigence on the peace terms set forth by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) between Germany and the Allied Powers resulted in a peak of success, prestige and influence during the interwar period. For example, in 1917 it moved into new spacious offices on the rue Caumartin, near St. Lazare train station. However, in the French legislative elections of 16 November 1919 Bernard de Vésins, president of the Ligue d'Action Française, was defeated in the first district of Paris.
Action française exploited the disquiet aroused on the right by the victory of the left-wing coalition (Cartel des Gauches) founded by the Radical politician Édouard Herriot in 1924 and the fear of communism (see also: Red Scare), sending about thirty candidates to the French Parliament. Well-known French writers endorsed the movement, which advertised itself as the thinking man's party. Literary reviews, especially Revue universelle, spread the message of Action française. The polemics of the review, its personal attacks on leaders, and its systematic exploitation of scandals and crises helped detach some of the intellectuals from their allegiance to the French Republic and democracy. This agitation culminated in the 6 February 1934 crisis. The successes shaped the ideology of Action française; hence, it became more integrated into mainstream conservatism, stressing patriotism and Roman Catholicism as opposed to monarchism.
Papal condemnation and decline In spite of the movement's support for Roman Catholicism as the state religion of France, and the fact that the vast majority of its members were practising Catholics (including significant numbers of clergymen), some French Catholics regarded it with suspicion and distrust. Much of this was due to the influence of Maurras, an agnostic who advocated Roman Catholicism as a factor of social cohesion and stability and a vital element of French tradition. This rather utilitarian view of religion disturbed many who otherwise agreed with him. Its influence on younger generations of French Catholics was also considered unwholesome. Thus, Pope Pius XI condemned Action française on 29 December 1926.
Several of Maurras's writings were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum at the same time, on 9 January 1927, with Action française being the first newspaper ever placed on the Catholic Church's list of banned books. This was a devastating blow to the movement. On 8 March 1927, AF members were prohibited from receiving the sacraments. Many of its members left the movement and were forced to look for a different path in politics and life, such as writers François Mauriac and Georges Bernanos, and it entered a period of decline.
In 1939, following the Spanish Civil War and a revival of anti-communism within the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII decided to end the condemnation.Arnal, Oscar L., Ambivalent Alliance: The Catholic Church and the Action Française, 1899-1939, pp.174-75 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985). Thereafter, Action française claimed that the condemnation had been declared for political purposes.
Interwar revival Despite the 1926 Papal condemnation, Action française remained popular during the interwar period, being one of the most important far-right leagues in France, along with the Croix-de-Feu and others. As increasing numbers of people in France (as in Europe as a whole) turned to authoritarian political movements, many French citizens joined the Action française. It thus continued to recruit members from the new generations, such as Robert Brasillach (who would become a collaborationist during the Second World War), the novelist and former deputy and ambassador Pierre Benoist, Thierry Maulnier, and Lucien Rebatet. It was marginally represented for a time in the Chamber of Deputies, particularly by Léon Daudet, elected in the right-wing conservative coalition Bloc National (1919–1924).
However, with the rise of fascism in Europe and the creation of seemingly fascist leagues, added to the 1926 Papal condemnation, the royalist movement was weakened by various dissidents: Georges Valois would create the short-lived fascist movement Faisceau; Louis Dimier would break away, while other members (Eugène Deloncle, Gabriel Jeantet, etc.) created La Cagoule, a far-right terrorist organization.
The retired Admiral Antoine Schwerer became president of the league in 1930, succeeding Bernard de Vésins in difficult circumstances. He was a talented orator. At the December 1931 congress, "greeted by loud acclamation", he gave himself to a full presentation of "the general situation of France", external, financial, economic, interior and religious. He concluded with a passionate statement,
Antoine Schwerer was forced by illness to retire to Brittany in 1935. He was succeeded as head of the league by François de Lassus.
John Gunther wrote that of the more than 100 daily newspapers in Paris, only L'Humanité and Action française were honest. The group participated in the 6 February 1934 crisis, which led to the fall of the second Cartel des Gauches and to the replacement of the centre-left Radical-Socialist Édouard Daladier by the centre-right Radical Gaston Doumergue. In foreign policy, Maurras and Bainville supported Pierre Laval's double alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy and with the United Kingdom in the Stresa Front (1935) on one side, and with the Soviet Union on the other side, against the common enemy Nazi Germany. The Action française greeted Franco's appearance with delight, and supported the self-proclaimed Caudillo during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). But the extra-parliamentary agitation brought by the far-right leagues, including the AF, led Pierre Laval's government to outlaw militias and paramilitary leagues, leading to the dissolution of the AF on 13 February 1936"Cercle Jacques Decour (Chronology)". – the other leagues were dissolved only in June 1936 by the Popular Front.