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119-608: La Rocque envisioned the PSF as the more explicitly-political successor of the Croix-de-Feu , the World War I veterans' organization that had been founded in 1927 and, by the early 1930s, had emerged as the largest and one of the most influential of interwar France's numerous far-right leagues . Though the Croix-de-Feu had adopted as its slogan " Social d'abord " ("Social First") as a counter to

238-575: A Stalinist line under the leadership of Maurice Thorez . In response to the threat of fascism , the PCF joined the socialist Popular Front which won the 1936 election, but it did not participate in government. During World War II , it was outlawed by the occupying Germans and became an key element of the Resistance . The PCF participated in the provisional government of the Liberation from 1944 to 1947, but for

357-476: A 'perversion' of the communist model and unambiguously rejects Stalinism . It has not attributed the failure of the Soviet Union as being that of communism , rather stating that the failure of Soviet socialism was the failure of one model "among others", including the capitalist or social democratic models. It also tried to downplay the PCF's historic attachment to Moscow and the Soviet Union. Since then,

476-529: A Progressive Alternative , a party of reformist communists, in the Limousin and Val-de-Marne ). There exist isolated Communist bases in the rural anti-clerical areas of southwestern Côtes-d'Armor and northwestern Morbihan ; in the industrial areas of Le Mans ; in the shipbuilding cities of Saint-Nazaire , La Seyne-sur-Mer (there are no more ships built in La Seyne); and in isolated industrial centres built along

595-475: A certain mystique with regard to his attitude towards the Republic , explicitly rallied to it and denounced in a speech on 23 May 1936 totalitarianism (both Nazi and Soviet ) along with racism (with regard to which he explicitly rejected anti-Semitism) and class struggle, as the principal obstacles to "national reconciliation". Nevertheless, critics of the left and centre denounced the Croix-de-Feu, together with

714-480: A confirmation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 's view on the future evolution of capitalism. The party feels that the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession have further justified its calls to overcome capitalism. However, the PCF has remained somewhat vague on how capitalism will be 'overcome' and what will replace it, placing heavy emphasis on utopic models or values. The text adopted at

833-399: A greater emphasis on social work and protests. The party's structures were democratized at the 1994 Congress, dropping democratic centralism and allowing for the public expression of disapproval or dissent with the party line or leadership. The party's top posts, like that of 'secretary-general', were renamed (secretary-general became national-secretary). The party, since 2000, is now led by

952-521: A group of veterans of the First World War , those who had been awarded the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 . The group was founded on 26 November 1927 by Maurice d'Hartoy , who led it until 1929. The honorary presidency was awarded to writer Jacques Péricard . Also in 1929, the movement acquired its newspaper, Le Flambeau . At its creation, the movement was subsidized by the wealthy perfumer François Coty and

1071-474: A large base of members and the party's political and electoral actions were supported in society by a trade union , the General Confederation of Labour (CGT); a newspaper , L'Humanité ; and a large number of front organizations or associations in civil society which organized a large number of political or non-political social activities for PCF members. One such activity which still exists today

1190-489: A left-wing coalition government. La Rocque quickly became a hero of the far right , which opposed the influences of socialism and "hidden Communism " but was sceptical about becoming counterrevolutionary . Under la Rocque, the movement advocated a military effort against the "German danger" and supported corporatism and an alliance between capital and labour. It enlarged its base by creating several secondary associations, thus including non-veterans in its ranks. To counter

1309-605: A majority of members resigned from the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party to set up the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC) with Ludovic-Oscar Frossard as its first secretary-general, with the involvement of Ho Chi Minh as one of the notable agitators participating in its creation. The new SFIC defined itself as revolutionary and democratic centralist . The 1920s saw

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1428-501: A membership of 295,000, according to the party's own statistics by early 1938. With the continued growth of the PSF, however, the PPF fell into decline, which parallelled the demise of the Popular Front to which it had largely been a reaction. In March 1937, Doriot proposed the formation of a Front de la Liberté ("Front of Liberty") with the objective of unifying the right in opposition to

1547-605: A million according to some historians), it eclipsed even the traditionally mass-based Socialist (SFIO) and Communist Parties (202,000 and 288,000 members, respectively, in December 1936). The party's central committee included its president, La Rocque, vice-presidents Jean Mermoz and Noël Ottavi  [ fr ] , Edmond Barrachin  [ fr ] , Charles Vallin , Jean Ybarnégaray , Jean Borotra , and Georges Riché  [ fr ] . The party had two newspapers: Le Flambeau and Le Petit Journal . Six members of

1666-401: A national council, which serves as the leadership between congresses; and the executive committee, which is charged with applying the national council's decisions. The national-secretary is elected by delegates at the congress. Likewise, the national council is elected by list voting at every congress. A reform of statutes in 2001 has allowed "alternative texts" – dissent from the text proposed by

1785-617: A nationwide roundup of over 100 PSF leaders. Deported first to Czechoslovakia and later to Austria , he returned to France only in May 1945. As with nearly all other political parties that had existed under the Third Republic, the PSF produced both collaborators with and resisters of the Vichy regime. In most cases, individual circumstances dictated more ambiguous loyalties and actions. Although former PSF deputy Jean Ybarnegaray , for instance, served in

1904-653: A number of splits within the party over relations with other left-wing parties and over adherence to Comintern 's dictates. The party entered the French parliament , but also promoted strike action and opposed colonialism , a position that was isolated in the French political landscape at the time. The Intercolonial Union, created in 1922, brought together activists from the French colonies around demands for political equality (the right to vote) and social equality ("equal pay for equal work"). The communists thus called for fraternization with

2023-515: A paramilitary aesthetic and initially advocating collaboration with the Germans during the Second World War, finally came out against the more radical supporters of Nazi Germany . French Communist Party Former parties Former parties Former parties The French Communist Party ( French : Parti communiste français , pronounced [paʁti kɔmynist fʁɑ̃sɛ] , PCF )

2142-435: A populist and social-Catholic "antidote" to French fascism. He wrote, "Far from representing a French form of fascism in the face of the Popular Front, La Rocque helped to safeguard France from fascism" by diverting the support of the middle classes away from more extremist alternatives. Jacques Nobécourt made similar assertions: "La Rocque spared France from a pre-war experiment with totalitarianism". The lasting confusion over

2261-511: A traditional platitude of French conservatism, and the reform of France's political institutions along presidential lines to bolster the stability and authority of the state. Though the Croix-de-Feu participated in the demonstrations of 6 February 1934 , La Rocque forbade its members from involving themselves in the subsequent riot, thus demonstrating a respect for republican legality that the PSF would also uphold as one of its essential political principles. La Rocque, who had previously maintained

2380-754: Is a communist party in France . The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left , and its MEPs sit with The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL group. The PCF was founded in 1920 by Marxist–Leninist members of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) who supported the Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian Revolution . It became a member of the Communist International , and followed

2499-627: Is not enough to disqualify his movement as fascist. Croix-de-Feu The Croix-de-Feu ( French: [kʁwa də fø] , Cross of Fire ) was a nationalist French league of the Interwar period , led by Colonel François de la Rocque (1885–1946). After it was dissolved, as were all other leagues during the Popular Front period (1936–38), La Rocque established the Parti social français (PSF) to replace it. The Croix-de-Feu (CF) were primarily

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2618-483: Is the annual Fête de l'Humanité organized by the L'Humanité . French and foreign left-wing parties, organizations or movements are represented and the activities feature musical performances. Since the PCF's decline began in the 1970s, however, it has seen its membership base slowly dry up and its allied organizations disappear or distance themselves from the party. The PCF claimed 520,000 members in 1978; 330,000 in 1987; 270,000 in 1996; and 133,000 in 2002. In 2008,

2737-642: The Révolution Nationale , notably its corporatism and social policies. The PSF further refused to recognize General Charles de Gaulle 's Free French , along with the National Council of the Resistance , as the legitimate French authorities in opposition to Vichy, which also claimed constitutional legitimacy although some members of the PSF, such as Charles Vallin, joined the Free French. However, La Rocque

2856-548: The 2017 presidential election , the PCF supported Mélenchon's candidature; however, tensions between the PCF and Mélenchon's movement, La France Insoumise , have led the two parties to campaign separately for the general elections. Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a strong influence in French politics, especially at the local level. In 2012, the PCF claimed to have had 138,000 members, 70,000 of whom had paid their membership fees. The French Communist Party (PCF) originated in 1920, when

2975-729: The Faisceau , a tiny minority compared with the Croix-de-Feu, whose membership peaked at over a million. The Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell , on the other hand, has argued for the existence of a native French fascism and for groups like the Cercle Proudhon of the mid-to-late 1910s being among the more important ideological breeding grounds of the movement. He, however, does not include the Croix de Feu in that category: The 'centrist' right always had its own shock troops that served its own purposes, and took good care that they did not become confused with

3094-584: The Great Depression . They generated the most fear from the left. That demographic had historically been one of the primary bastions of the Radical-Socialist Party , and its falling under the influence of the "fascist" right was viewed by Popular Front leaders as a serious threat to the stability of the republic. The PSF, for its part, actively courted the middle classes and argued that their traditional Radical defenders had abandoned them by supporting

3213-558: The Jacobins the concept of France as a centralised, French-speaking , unitary state, with a unitary culture and it is opposed to the separatism and regional identity of other European minority groups native to the area of what consists the French Republic. For instance in 1984, the Soviet ethnographer Solomon Bruk (who had worked under Sergey Tolstov ) published a study on France and mentioned

3332-461: The National Council of the Resistance (CNR). By the time the German occupation ended in 1944, the party had become a powerful force in many parts of France. It was among the leading parties in elections in 1945 and 1946, and entered into the governing Tripartite alliance, which pursued social reforms and statism . However, amid concerns within France and abroad over the extent of communist influence,

3451-489: The Palais Bourbon and remained grouped several hundred metres away from the others rioting leagues. As one of the most essential paramilitary associations and because of its anti-Semitic position, the Croix-de-Feu and La Rocque were considered by the political left to be among the most dangerous imitators of Mussolini and Hitler. However, as a result of La Rocque's actions during the riots, it subsequently lost prestige among

3570-632: The Parti Républicain Social de la Réconciliation Française (Social Republican Party of French Reconciliation), known generally as Réconciliation Française and intended as the official successor of the PSF. On the initiative of Léotard, the PRSRF participated in the right-wing Rally of the Republican Lefts (RGR, see sinistrisme ) coalition in the elections of June 1946 , November 1946 , 1951 and 1956 . The death of La Rocque in 1946 deprived

3689-761: The Popular Front to inflame anti-Semitic sentiment in the colony. The 1936 elections saw the victory of anti-Semitic municipal governments, boycotts against Jewish business (heavily promoted by the Radical Party newspaper Le Republicain de Constantine ) and physical violence and attacks against Jews. The Croix de Feu acted in concert with other anti-Semitic parties, including the Rassemblement National d'Action Sociale led by Abbé Lambert , Action française and Parti Populaire français . Membership in Croix de Feu grew from 2,500 in 1933 to 8,440 in 1935 and 15,000 in 1936. The Croix-de-Feu did not participate in

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3808-484: The Republican Federation and Democratic Alliance , which had traditionally lacked a formal membership structure and relied instead on the support of notables, the PSF aggressively courted an extensive membership among the middle and lower classes. By 1940, the PSF had become not only France's first right-wing mass party but also the nation's largest party in terms of membership: over 700,000 members (and more than

3927-556: The Réseau Klan ("Klan Network") in 1942 as a means of coordinating intelligence-gathering activities among PSF members. Nevertheless, he continued to believe that he could convince Pétain to abandon his collaborationist line and so he requested and was granted three meetings with the Marshal in early 1943. Two days after their last meeting, on 9 March, La Rocque was arrested by the Gestapo during

4046-454: The Soviet Union . Under Robert Hue 's leadership after 1994, the PCF's ideology and internal organization underwent major changes. Hue clearly rejected the Soviet model, and reserved very harsh criticism for Soviet leaders who had "rejected, for years, human rights and 'bourgeois' democracy" and had oppressed individual liberties and aspirations. Today, the PCF considers the Soviet Union as

4165-568: The abolition of the death penalty and nuclear disarmament . In 1979 it was proposed by revisionists in France that party documents should omit Marxism–Leninism and use scientific socialism in its place. Under the Common Programme, however, the PCF steadily lost ground to the PS, a process that continued after Mitterrand's victory in 1981. Initially allotted a minor share in Mitterrand's government,

4284-586: The parliamentary elections of May 1936, the government issued a decree banning the Croix-de-Feu, along with the Mouvement social français , on 18 June. Within weeks, on 7 July, La Rocque founded the French Social Party to succeed the defunct league. Defunct Defunct The PSF inherited the large popular base of the Croix-de-Feu (450,000 members in June, 1936, most of them having joined since 1934) and, mirroring

4403-622: The refondateurs , 10.26% for André Gerin's orthodox list and 5.64% for Nicolas Marchand's novateur list. Currently, the PCF retains some strength in suburban Paris, in the Nord section of the old coal mining area in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais , the industrial harbours of Le Havre and Dieppe , in some departments of central France, such as Allier and Cher (where a form of sharecropping existed, in addition to mining and small industrial-mining centres such as Commentry and Montceau-les-Mines ),

4522-449: The " Politique d'abord " ("Politics First") of Action Française , it espoused the political goals elaborated by La Rocque in his tract Service Public , including social Catholic corporatism , the institution of a minimum wage and paid vacations ( congés payés ), women's suffrage and the reform of parliamentary procedure. The party's programme would further develop the same themes by advocating "the association of capital and labour",

4641-567: The "Red Limousin ", the Pas-de-Calais , Paris proper, Nièvre , Finistère, Alpes-Maritimes and Var have been hurt significantly by demographic changes (Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Finistère), a loss of voters to the Socialist Party due to good local Socialist infrastructure or strongmen (Nièvre, Pas-de-Calais, Paris) or due to the emergence of rival parties on the radical left (the Convention for

4760-418: The "fascist" tendencies of the PSF can be ascribed in part to two factors. Firstly, the PSF's predecessor, the Croix-de-Feu, had aspired to a paramilitary aesthetic (described by Julian Jackson as a "fascist frisson " and dismissed by Rémond as "political boy scouting for adults") outwardly similar to that employed by the more overtly fascist of the right-wing leagues. Furthermore, La Rocque continued to defend

4879-399: The 1930s "leagues" as a native "French Fascism", particularly the Croix-de-Feu. The organisation is described by Rémond as completely secretive about its aims with an ideology kept "as vague as possible." Rémond, the most famous and influential of these postwar historians, distinguishes "Reaction" and the far right from "revolutionary" fascism as an import into France which had few takers. In

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4998-507: The 1930s and 1960s, in 1946, it elected seventeen of the first thirty-three women deputies. In 1956, there were only nineteen women in the National Assembly, but fifteen were Communists. On the issue of immigration, the PCF's positions have also evolved significantly since the 1980s. In the 1981 presidential election , Georges Marchais ran a controversial campaign on immigration which was harshly criticized by anti-racism organizations at

5117-585: The 1932 demonstrations organised by the Action française and the far-right leagues Jeunesses Patriotes against the debt payment to the United States. The Croix-de-feu, however, took part in the massive rally of 6 February 1934 , which led to the toppling of the Second Cartel des gauches (Left-Wing Coalition). Still, La Rocque refused to riot, although parts of the Croix-de-Feu disagreed with him. It had circled

5236-473: The 1968 third edition of " La droite en France ", his major work he defines fascism in Europe as a revolt of the declassés , a movement of those on half-pay, civilian and military. Everywhere it came to power through social upheavals.... Although with a handful of fascists [in 1930s France], there was a minority of reactionaries and a great majority of conservatives. Amongst these he places much smaller groups like

5355-507: The CEVIPOF in 1979 and 1997, the makeup of the PCF's membership has also changed significantly since 1979. The most marked change was a major decline in the share of manual workers ( ouvriers ) in the party's membership, with a larger number of employees and middle-classes, especially those who work in the public sector . The form of political action taken by members has also changed, with less emphasis on direct political or electoral action but

5474-498: The CGT and the PCF were close and almost indissociable allies – notably in May 1968 when both the CGT and PCF were eager for a restoration of social order and welcomed the Grenelle agreements . While the CGT has remained the largest trade union in France, it has taken its independence vis-à-vis the PCF. Louis Viannet spectacularly quit the national bureau of the PCF in 1996 and Bernard Thibault ,

5593-464: The CGT's leader between 1999 and 2013, left the PCF's national council in 2001. L'Humanité has retained closer ties with the PCF. The newspaper was founded by Jean Jaurès in 1904 as the socialist movement's mouthpiece, and it followed the communist majority following the split in 1920. After having been the official newspaper of the PCF, with a readership of up to 100,000 in 1945, the newspaper's readership and sales declined substantially partly due to

5712-502: The Chamber in June 1939, that promised to translate into approximately 100 deputies in the legislative elections planned for 1940. By 1939, the party's elected officials, its 11 deputies aside, included nearly 3000 mayors, 541 general councilors and thousands of municipal councilors . Of all the PSF's successes, it was the party's popularity among the middle classes, the peasants, shopkeepers, and clerical workers, who had been hardest hit by

5831-525: The Croix-de-Feu and the PSF were partially-realized manifestations of a distinctively-French fascism, their political potential but not their tactics of organization and mobilisation, which was destroyed by the German invasion and thus permanently discredited. Sternhell, pointing to the democratic path to power followed by the Nazi Party , also made the argument that La Rocque's apparent respect for republican legality

5950-428: The French communists somewhat better electoral results. Pierre Laurent was leader from 2010 to 2018, being succeeded by Fabien Roussel who stood as the party's candidate at the 2022 French presidential election . Roussel received 2.28% of votes cast, coming in eighth place. The PCF, in contrast to weaker and more marginal communist parties in Europe, is usually seen as a left wing , rather than far-left, party in

6069-416: The French context. While the French far-left ( LCR / NPA , LO ) has refused to participate in government or engage in electoral alliances with centre-left parties such as the PS, the PCF has participated in governments in the past, and still enjoys a de facto electoral agreement with the PS (mutual withdrawals, the common practice since 1962 and in 1934–1939). Nonetheless, some observers and analysts classify

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6188-689: The Gaullist Rally for France . The historian William D. Irvine stated: Historians have argued that the Croix-de-Feu were a distinctly-French variant of the European fascist movement. If the uniformed rightist " Leagues " of the 1930s did not develop into classical Fascism, it was because they represented a shading from conservative right-wing nationalism to extremist fascism, in membership and ideology, distinctive to French inter-war society. Most contemporary French historians ( René Rémond , Pierre Milza and François Sirinelli in particular) do not classify

6307-511: The General Council – in the Val-de-Marne and Allier . The PCF lost Seine-Saint-Denis , which it had held since the 1960s, to the PS in 2008. The PCF has traditionally been a "mass party", although Maurice Duverger had differentiated it from other mass parties because the PCF kept a tight control over membership and regularly expelled unsuitable members. In its heyday, the PCF maintained

6426-639: The Moroccan insurgents during the Rif War (1925–1926) and to the evacuation of Morocco by the French army, they called for an end to the fighting and the independence of French Syria during the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925–1927, and denounced the festivities of the centenary of the colonization of Algeria, organizing in particular a campaign to boycott the Paris Colonial Exposition (1931). The party

6545-465: The PCF and they are de facto expressed officially by different orientation texts or lists for leadership elections at party congresses. Preparatory votes on orientation texts for PCF Congresses since 2003: At the XXXIV Congress in 2008, for the election of the national council, the majority's list won 67.73% from the congress' delegates against 16.38% for Marie-Pierre Vieu's huiste list backed by

6664-483: The PCF as a far-left party, noting their political proximity to other far-left parties. In the 1980s, under Georges Marchais , the PCF mixed a partial acceptance of "bourgeois" democracy and individual liberties with more traditional Marxist–Leninist ideas. During this same period the PCF was run on democratic centralist lines and structured itself as a revolutionary party in the Leninist sense and rejected criticism of

6783-414: The PCF leadership – to be presented and voted on; dissident lists to those backed by the leadership may also run for the national council. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) was dominated by the PCF after 1946, with almost all its leaders between 1947 and 1996 ( Benoît Frachon , Georges Séguy , Henri Krasucki , Louis Viannet ) also serving in the PCF's national leadership structures. For years,

6902-476: The PCF opposed de Gaulle's formation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the following years saw a rapprochement with other left-wing forces and an increased strength in parliament. With Waldeck Rochet as its new secretary-general, the party supported François Mitterrand 's unsuccessful presidential bid in 1965. During the student riots and strikes of May 1968 , the party supported the strikes while denouncing

7021-494: The PCF resigned in 1984 as the government turned towards fiscal orthodoxy. Under Marchais the party largely maintained its traditional communist doctrines and structure. Extensive reform was undertaken after 1994, when Robert Hue became leader. This did little to stem the party's declining popularity, although it entered government again in 1997 as part of the Plural Left coalition. Elections in 2002 gave worse results than ever for

7140-498: The PCF voted in favour of the civil solidarity pact (PACS), civil unions, including for homosexual couples. The PCF supports both same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption . On 12 February 2013, PCF deputies voted in favour of same-sex marriage and adoption rights in the National Assembly, though PCF deputy Patrice Carvalho voted against. The PCF also supports feminist movements, and supports policies to further promote gender equality and parity. Despite its moral conservatism in

7259-458: The PCF was excluded from government in May 1947 . Under pressure from Moscow, the PCF thereafter distanced itself from other parties and focused on agitation within its trade union base. For the rest of the Fourth Republic period the PCF, led by Thorez and Jacques Duclos, remained politically isolated, still taking a Stalinist line, though retaining substantial electoral support. Although

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7378-416: The PCF's concomitant decline. In 1999, the mention of the newspaper's link to the PCF was dropped and the PCF no longer determines its editorial stance. It sold an average of 46,929 newspapers per day in 2012; down from 53,530 in 2007. Secretaries-general (1921–1994) and national-secretaries (since 1994) There are no formal organized factions or political groupings within the PCF. This was originally due to

7497-494: The PCF's ideology has been marked by significant ideological evolution on some topics, but consistency on other issues. Some of the most marked changes have come on individual rights and immigration. After having vilified homosexuality and feminism as "the rubbish of capitalism" in the 1970s, the PCF now supports gay rights and feminism. In the 1980s, the PCF supported reducing the age of consent for homosexual relationships, and opposed attempts to re-penalize homosexuality. In 1998,

7616-601: The PCF. Under Marie-George Buffet , the PCF turned away from parliamentary strategy and sought broader social alliances. To maintain a presence in parliament after 2007 the party's few remaining deputies had to join others in the Democratic and Republican Left group (GDR). Subsequently, a broader electoral coalition, the Left Front (FG), was formed including the PCF, the Left Party (PG), Unitary Left , and others. The FG has brought

7735-510: The PSF instead as an offshoot of the Bonapartist tradition in French right-wing politics, populist and anti-parliamentarian but hardly fascist. Milza in La France des années 30 writes that "the PSF was more anti-parliamentarian than anti-republican". More recently, Lacouture wrote, "La Rocque's movement was neither fascist nor extremist". Furthermore, Rémond identified the PSF, at least in part, as

7854-531: The PSF of the chance to make serious inroads in parliament. On 30 July, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier , fearing that the imminent electoral campaign would distract the Chamber of Deputies from the business of national defence, used the decree powers granted him by the Chamber to extend its term until May 1942. After the Fall of France and the establishment of the Vichy regime , La Rocque denounced it as defeatist and anti-Semitic, but he still proclaimed his personal loyalty to Marshal Philippe Pétain , and

7973-428: The PSF was renamed Progrès Social Français (French Social Progress) and took on the form of a social aid organisation because of the occupation authorities' prohibition of organised political activities. La Rocque's attitude towards the Vichy government was initially ambiguous. As stated, he continued to affirm his loyalty to Pétain and was amenable to certain of the more moderate aspects of Vichy's reactionary program,

8092-439: The PSF. Zeev Sternhell , criticising Rémond's classification of the PSF as Bonapartist in Neither Right Nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France , associates the party and its leader with a "revolutionary right" tradition that owes its political heritage to Boulangism and the revolutionary syndicalism of Georges Sorel . That minority view is partially shared by Robert Soucy , William D. Irvine , and Michel Dobry , who argue that

8211-409: The Popular Front. Despite that demographic threat, however, the PSF generated the most fervent hostility within the parties of the established parliamentary right, most notably the conservative Republican Federation . The tensions between the Federation and the PSF were demonstrated as early as 1937 by a Normandy by-election in which the Federation candidate, after being behind the PSF candidate in

8330-460: The Popular Front. Although the Republican Federation, followed by several small right-wing parties that stood to lose little from allying themselves to the more extremist PPF, quickly accepted Doriot's proposal, it was rejected both by the moderate Democratic Alliance and by La Rocque, who identified the Front as an attempt to "annex" the popularity of his party. His insistence on the PSF's independence got La Rocque attacked violently by other figures on

8449-405: The Union's latines, because Oran had fewer Muslims and was more anti-Semitic. Under Lieutenant-Colonel François de La Rocque , who took over in 1930, the Croix-de-Feu took its independence from François Coty and left the building of Le Figaro for rue de Milan. It organised popular demonstrations in reaction to the Stavisky Affair in the hope of overthrowing the Second Cartel des gauches ,

8568-545: The XXXVI Congress in February 2013 reiterated the party's call on the need to "overcome" capitalism, fiercely denounced by the PCF as having led to "savage competition", "the devastation of the planet" and "barbarism". It contrasts its vision of capitalism with its proposed alternative, described as an egalitarian , humanist , and democratic alternative. It emphasizes human emancipation, the development of "each and every one",

8687-452: The alliance, they were the only party to support nuclear energy. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the FG's platform in the 2012 presidential election was broken up into nine overarching themes. The platform also supported same-sex marriage , same-sex adoption , voting rights for resident foreigners , euthanasia , and constitutional recognition of abortion . The French Communist Party inherited from

8806-478: The chief potential French March-on-Romer " but added that he was "a rather pallid Fascist", did not attempt to seize power during the 6 February riots and peacefully complied with the government's ban of the Croix de Feu. Other scholars, such as Robert Soucy and William D. Irvine , argue that the La Rocque and the Croix de Feu were in fact fascist and a particularly "French" fascism. La Rocque, however, if tempted by

8925-429: The citizens of our country, every man and woman of French nationality is French. Every attempt using hazardous criteria which borders on racism in an ill-defined way, seeking to define as not purely French such and such members of the French community, is offensive to the national consciousness. Nobody here can accept that, our Party least of all. The PCF does not, as of May 2022 , have any MEPs . It has two Presidents of

9044-469: The communist mayor of Sarcelles, Henry Canacos, was named "best mayor in the Paris region" by Vie Publique (a trade periodical for urban planners and administrators) for enriching Sarcelles' public spaces with new restaurants, movie theatres, cafes, more parks, a large shopping mall, and better transportation. Education also became, in the words of one text, an "identifiable characteristic of Communist government at

9163-498: The contemporary Popular Front, achieved considerable success in mobilizing it through a variety of associated organizations: sporting societies, labour organizations and leisure and vacation camps. PSF members also orchestrated the development of "professional unions" ( syndicats professionels ), envisioned as a means of organising management against labour militancy, which espoused class collaboration and claimed 1,000,000 members by 1938. Unlike established right-wing parties such as

9282-462: The corruption of capitalism. To them the Leagues were a bulwark of this corrupt regime. Robert Brasillach called them "old cuckolds of the right, these eternal deceived husbands of politics.." and claimed that "the enemies of national restoration are not only on the left but first and foremost on the right.l". The American journalist John Gunther in 1940 described La Rocque as a "French Fascist No. 1,

9401-583: The existence of other ethnic groups in the state such as Bretons , Corsicans , Alsatians , Basques , Catalans , Flemish and others. In response to this work, General Secretary Georges Marchais wrote a letter of protest in February 1984, complaining bitterly to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . France is one country, one nation, one people. We protest indignantly against such ridiculous and odious allegations. For us, as for all

9520-548: The far-right before it was dissolved by the Popular Front government on 18 June 1936. La Rocque then formed the French Social Party (PSF) as a successor to the dissolved league. Moderate estimates place the membership for the PSF at 500,000 in the buildup to the Second World War , which would make it the first French conservative mass party. Although its slogan Travail, Famille, Patrie ("Work, Family, Fatherland")

9639-402: The far-right leagues, the PSF was viewed by the long-established Federation as a rival "to its own electoral fortunes". A second victim of the PSF's popularity was Jacques Doriot 's far-right Parti Populaire Français (PPF), which incorporated nationalist, virulently-anticommunist and openly-fascist tendencies. Founded, like the PSF, in June 1936, the PPF enjoyed initial success and attracted

9758-531: The fascists. Sternhell, interested in the Fascism as a "anti-material revision of Marxism" or an anti-capitalist, cultish, corporatist extreme nationalism, points out that groups like the Jeunesses Patriotes , the revived Ligue des Patriotes and the Croix de Feu were derided by French fascists at the time. Fascist leaders in France saw themselves as destroyers of the old order, above politics, and rejecting

9877-504: The first Vichy government under Pétain as Minister for Veterans and the Family, he resigned his post in 1940 and was in 1943 arrested and deported because of his efforts in helping Resistance members to cross the Pyrenees into Spain. In August 1945, after the Liberation of France , La Rocque and his remaining followers, principally Pierre de Léotard, André Portier, and Jean de Mierry, established

9996-496: The first round, initially refused to stand down and support the latter in the runoff round. The rancor of the feuding parties, despite the Federation candidate's eventual endorsement of the PSF, resulted in the seat falling to the centre, which demonstrated to Federation and PSF leaders alike the undesirability of co-existence. Thus, although the two parties were in fact in agreement on many questions of ideology, notably their defense of

10115-460: The following: Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily L'Humanité ( Humanity ), founded by Jean Jaurès . Although the newspaper is now independent, it remains close to the PCF. The paper is sustained by the annual Fête de L'Humanité festival, held in La Courneuve , a working class suburb of Paris. This event remains the biggest festival in France, with 600,000 attendees during

10234-585: The government to prevent the sabotage of their efforts to lure the Radical Party into a centre-right coalition. Thus, the Independent Radicals , gathering right-wing Radical parliamentarians, constituted the most effective opposition to the Popular Front, particularly in the Senate . With the prospect of a PSF breakthrough in the 1940 elections in mind, the Independent Radicals sought to cooperate with

10353-504: The industrial mining region of northern Meurthe-et-Moselle ( Longwy ) and in some cities of the south, such as the industrial areas of Marseille and nearby towns, as well as the working-class suburbs surrounding Paris (the ceinture rouge ), Lyon , Saint-Étienne , Alès and Grenoble . The PCF is also strong in the Cévennes mountains, a left-wing rural anti-clerical stronghold with a strong Huguenot minority. Communist traditions in

10472-513: The leagues' activities even in the face of their condemnation by the parties of the established moderate right (though not the Republican Federation ). Secondly, the PSF's condemnation of parliamentarism , which was considered synonymous with French republicanism by most leftist and centrist politicians, marked it as inherently anti-republican and thus "fascist" in the period's political discourse in their opinions. A number of foreign historians, however, have questioned those defences of La Rocque and

10591-429: The local level". A study of municipal budgets that was completed in 1975 (but using data from 1968) found that while Communist local government spent 34% less than non-Communist Left governments and 36% less than moderate-Right governments for maintenance, it nevertheless spent 49% more than moderate Right governments and 36% more than non-Communist Left governments for education and educational support. The PCF publishes

10710-508: The monarchist Action française and its slogan Politique d'abord! "Politics First!"), de la Rocque invented the motto Social d'abord! ("Social First!"). In his book, Le Service Public ("Public Service)", which was published in November 1934, he argued in favour of a reform of parliamentary procedures, cooperation between industries according to their branches of activities; a minimum wage and paid holidays; women's suffrage (also upheld by

10829-476: The monarchist Action française, which considered that women, often devout, would be more favourable to their conservative thesis) etc. The Croix de Feu was one of the right-wing groups that pushed anti-Semitic politics in 1935. Along with Volontaires Nationaux and others, the Croix de Feu used the political developments in Metropolitan France like the election of Léon Blum , a Jewish Prime Minister, and

10948-476: The nascent PSF were elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1936 , and three more were elected in by-elections between 1936 and 1939. Two deputies of other right-wing parliamentary groups defected to the party. The true measure of the party's electoral potential, however, came with the municipal elections of 1938–1939 in which it won 15% of votes nationally. As a result of the proportional representation law passed by

11067-623: The new force; for their part, the PSF deputies voted confidence in Édouard Daladier 's Radical government in April 1938. With the collapse of the Popular Front the PSF-Radical alliance seemed inevitable to many on the left, with the Socialist newspaper Le Populaire writing in 1938 that "the PSF-Radical bloc has become a reality of political life". However, that observation appeared premature to most contemporary observers. The Danzig Crisis of 1939 deprived

11186-543: The next 30 years was excluded from government despite consistently winning more than 20 percent of the vote in elections. It fell behind the Socialist Party in the 1970s, though entered government early in François Mitterrand 's presidency (1981–1984) and participated in the Plural Left cabinet led by Lionel Jospin (1997–2002). From 2009, the PCF was a leading member of the Left Front ( Front de gauche ), alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon 's Left Party (PG). During

11305-412: The number of immigrants in housing projects. However, today the PCF supports the regularization of illegal immigrants . One historical consistency in the PCF's ideology has been its staunch opposition to capitalism , which must be "overcome" because according to the PCF the capitalist system is "exhausted" and "on the verge of collapse". The PCF has interpreted the current course of globalization as

11424-465: The old Paris-Lyon railway (the urban core of Romilly-sur-Seine , Aube has elected a Communist general councillor since 1958). During the course of the 20th century, the French communists were considered to be pioneers in local government, providing not only efficient street lighting and clean streets, but also public entertainment, public housing, municipal swimming pools, day nurseries, children's playgrounds, and public lavatories. In 1976, for instance,

11543-467: The other leagues, as fascist organizations. A desire to defend the republic was not their sole motivation. Politicians of the centre-right and left alike opposed La Rocque because of the perceived threat of his success in mobilising a mass base within their traditional particularly working-class constituencies. The disruptive nature of the leagues' activities made Pierre Laval 's government outlaw paramilitary groups on 6 December 1935. Although that decision

11662-568: The parliamentary republic, would also contribute to the development of Gaullism , culminating in the establishment of the presidential Fifth Republic in 1958. The postwar Gaullist party, the Rally of the French People (RPF), like the MRP, enthusiastically adopted the mass-based model of organization and mobilization that had been pioneered by the PSF, a sharp and permanent break from the cadre-based parties of

11781-457: The party began to organise opposition to the occupation. Shortly before Germany invaded the Soviet Union the next year, the PCF formed, in May 1941, the National Front movement within the broader Resistance , together with the armed Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) group. At the same time the PCF began to work with de Gaulle 's " Free France " government in exile, and later took part in

11900-400: The party claimed that it had 134,000 members of which 79,000 were up to date on their membership fees. In the 2011 internal primary, 69,277 members were registered to vote and 48,631 (70.2%) did so. The party likely has about 70,000 members as of today, but only about 40 to 50 thousand seem to actively participate in the party's organization and political activities. According to studies by

12019-499: The party from 1924 to 1929. Semard sought party unity and alliances with other parties; but leaders including Thorez (party leader from 1930 to 1964) imposed a Stalinist line from the late 1920s. With the rise of fascism after 1934 the PCF supported the Popular Front , which came to power under Léon Blum in 1936. The party supported the Second Spanish Republic and opposed the 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler. It

12138-450: The party of unifying leadership, however, and the prewar popularity that it had hoped to exploit never materialised. Though the PRSRF had effectively disappeared by 1956, with the schism that year of the RGR into centre-left and centre-right groups, some of its members would later continue their political careers within the conservative National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP). Despite

12257-460: The postwar insignificance of the party itself, elements of the PSF's and La Rocque's ideology strongly influenced the political formations of right and the centre during the Fourth Republic . La Rocque had advised his followers to create "a third party, sincerely republican and very bold from a social perspective" — by which he meant Réconciliation Française within the Rally of the Republican Lefts , but for some former PSF loyalists and sympathizers,

12376-412: The practice of democratic centralism, but even after the democratization of the PCF structure after 1994 the ban on the organization of formal factions within the party remained. According to party statutes, the PCF supports the "pluralism of ideas" but the right to pluralism "may not be translated into an organizations of tendencies". Nevertheless, certain factions and groups are easily identifiable within

12495-435: The prewar classical right. Historical debate over the PSF, like its predecessor, the Croix-de-Feu, has been driven by the question of whether they can be considered in at least some respects as the manifestations of a "French fascism ". Most contemporary French historians , notably René Rémond , Michel Winock , Jean Lacouture and Pierre Milza , have rejected that assertion. Rémond, in his La Droite en France , identifies

12614-437: The revolutionary student movements. After heavy losses in the ensuing parliamentary elections, the party adopted Georges Marchais as leader and in 1973 entered into a "Common Programme" alliance with Mitterrand's reconstituted Socialist Party (PS). It provided for an increase in wages and social benefits, a reduction in working hours, a retirement age of 60 for men and 55 for women, the expansion of workers' rights and freedoms,

12733-507: The right to happiness and the equal dignity of each human being regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. The party further posits that such an egalitarian society is impossible within capitalism, which "unleashes domination and hatred". The party is generally seen as Eurosceptic . For the 2022 French legislative election , the party joined the New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) bloc of left-wing and green parties. In

12852-572: The right, including former Croix-de-Feu members who had abandoned the more moderate Social Party. The major parties of the right fell in disarray after their electoral defeat and the strike movement of June 1936. Although the Republican Federation, at least, was consistent in its opposition to Popular Front policies, the Democratic Alliance and the small, Christian democratic Popular Democratic Party (PDP) were reluctant to criticise

12971-488: The statement applied more accurately to the newly-formed Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP) and, for others (notably François Mitterrand ), the left-liberal Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR). PSF ideology, particularly its corporatist emphasis on the association of capital and labour and its advocacy of a strong stable presidential regime to replace

13090-509: The support of French settlers, the CF adopted a new approach. European settlers in Algeria tended to support authoritarian and imperialist governments over French republicanism . They were anti-Semitic and xenophobic . Believing that Algerian Europeans were a new race, they saw themselves as "youthful, virile and brutal" and Metropolitan France as "degenerate, effeminate and weak". They often resorted to

13209-488: The time. In 1980, the PCF's leadership voted in favour of limiting immigration. The same year, Marchais supported the PCF mayor of Vitry-sur-Seine who had destroyed a home for Malian migrant workers; the PCF claimed that the right-wing government was trying to push immigrants into ghettos in Communist working-class cities. The Libération newspaper also alleged that PCF municipal administrations had been working to limit

13328-576: The use of force against Muslim and Jewish Algerians. The Croix-de-feu had a massive propaganda campaign that won thousands of members in Constantine and Algiers . It proposed an alliance with local Muslims and attacked the left. Scholars see that as a tactic to funnel extreme and separatist frustrations caused by an economic disparity between European settlers and the local Algerian people. It used different propaganda in Oran , more similar to Jules Molle and

13447-477: Was France's first major conservative party (1936–1940). He advocated a presidential regime to end the instability of the parliamentary regime, an economic system founded upon "organised professions" ( corporatism ) and social legislation inspired by Social Christianity . Historians now consider that he paved the way for the French Christian democratic parties: the postwar Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and

13566-636: Was hosted in the building of Le Figaro . It benefited from the Catholic Church 's 1926 proscription of the Action Française , which prohibited Catholics from supporting the latter. Many conservative Catholics became members of the Croix-de-feu instead, including Jean Mermoz and the young François Mitterrand . Unlike the Unions latines , which had promoted algérianité (Algerianness) and gained

13685-861: Was hostile to Vichy's enthusiastic collaboration with the Nazi occupiers and forbade PSF members from participating in Vichy-sponsored organisations such as the Service d'Ordre Légionnaire , the Milice and the Legion of French Volunteers . In August 1940, La Rocque began actively to participate in the French Resistance by transmitting information to the British Secret Intelligence Service via Georges Charaudeau's Réseau Alibi ("Alibi Network") and forming

13804-556: Was later used by Vichy France to replace the Republican slogan Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité , the party remained eclectic. The party disappeared with the Fall of France without having had the opportunity to profit from its immense popularity. During the occupation of France , La Rocque joined the French Resistance but was the subject of considerable controversy immediately after the war. Defunct Defunct The Parti Social Français

13923-462: Was organized around leaders who were mostly from the working class, setting up training and promotion schemes and encouraging the presentation of working-class candidates in elections. The Maurice Thorez , Jacques Duclos and Benoît Frachon team, who had been miners, metalworkers and pastry cooks respectively, had an exceptional longevity and led the French party for almost three decades. The railroad worker Pierre Semard had been secretary general of

14042-405: Was succeeded by the law of 10 January 1936 regulating militias and combat organizations, the law was only partially implemented. Of all the leagues, only Action Française was dissolved, and the Croix-de-Feu was allowed to continue its activities essentially unimpeded. After the victory of the Popular Front , which had included in its electoral programme a promise to dissolve the right-wing leagues in

14161-583: Was the only political party in France to denounce this agreement. The party was banned in 1939 by the government of Édouard Daladier as a result of the German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact , due to its membership in the Comintern , which opposed the War (prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany). The leadership, threatened with execution, fled abroad. After the German invasion of 1940

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