The1934 Montreux Fascist conference, also known as theFascist International Congress, was a meeting held by deputies from a number ofEuropeanFascist organizations. The conference was held on 16–17 December 1934 inMontreux,Switzerland. The conference was organised and chaired by theComitati d'Azione per l'Universalità di Roma [it] (CAUR; English: Action Committees for the Universality of Rome).
CAUR was a network founded in 1933 byBenito Mussolini'sFascist Regime. CAUR's director wasEugenio Coselschi [it], and its stated goal was to act as a network for a "Fascist International".[1] Major obstacles arose in the organisation's attempt to identify a "universal fascism" and the criteria that an organisation must fulfil in order to qualify as "fascist".[1] Nevertheless, by April 1934 the network had identified "fascist" movements in 39 countries, including all European countries exceptYugoslavia, as well as theUnited States,Canada,Australia,South Africa, five countries inAsia and six inLatin America.[1] As different groups tried to obtain subsidies all manners of conflicts arose on issues such asracism,anti-Semitism,corporatism, and state structure.[1]
The first world conference of the CAUR convened at Montreux on 16 December. Participants from fascist organisations in 13 European countries attended, includingIon Moța ofRomania'sIron Guard,Vidkun Quisling ofNorway'sNasjonal Samling,George S. Mercouris of theGreek National Socialist Party,Ernesto Giménez Caballero of theSpanishFalange movement,Eoin O'Duffy of theIrishBlueshirts,Marcel Bucard of theFrenchMouvement Franciste,[2] representatives fromLithuania'sTautininkai,[3] thePortugueseAcção Escolar Vanguarda (English: Vanguard School Action) andUnião Nacional ofSalazar, were headed byAntónio Eça de Queiroz (son ofthe famous writer, and future head of the Emissora Nacional, the National Radio Station of Portugal),[4] as well as delegates from Austria, Belgium,[5] Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Notable in their absence were any representatives fromNazi Germany.[6] The conference in Montreux occurred only six months after the assassination of theAustrofascist Austrian chancellorEngelbert Dollfuss byNazi agents and the resulting diplomaticcrisis betweenItaly andGermany. Likewise, Mussolini did not allow any official representative of the ItalianFascist Party to attend the meeting, ostensibly in order to see what the conference could achieve before lending full official support.[6]José Antonio Primo de Rivera, while allowing members of theFalange to participate, issued a public statement that the Falange as an organisation would not be represented, claiming that the Falange was "not a Fascist movement", although the following year he asserted that the Falange was the "sole Fascist movement of Spain" in a private report to the Italian embassy.[7] Other notable absences included the AustrianErnst Rudiger von Starhemberg and any representatives from theBritish Union of Fascists.[6]
From the outset, the conference was marred by serious conflicts between the participants. Coselschi, acting as President of the Conference, clashed with Quisling over the importance ofNazi Germany to international fascism.[6] Moța, supported by the Danish and Swiss delegates, likewise created a rift by underlining the centrality of anti-Semitism to fascist movements, a move opposed by Coselschi and O'Duffy.[6] The Romanian Iron Guard stressed the need for race to be an integral component of fascism.[8]
On the matter of anti-Semitism, several compromise resolutions were adopted. These declared that "theJewish question cannot be converted into a universal campaign of hatred against the Jews" while also stating, "Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and occult manner an influence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbors them, constituting a sort of state within a state, profiting by all benefits and refusing all duties, considering that they have furnished and are inclined to furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destructive to the idea of patriotism and Christian civilisation, the Conference denounces the nefarious action of these elements and is ready to combat them."[6]
The delegates at the conference also unanimously declared their opposition tocommunist movements and theThird International.[6]
A second and final conference was held in Montreux in April 1935. José Antonio Primo de Rivera made a brief appearance at this conference, using the opportunity to express sympathies with the movement while stating that Spain was not ready to participate in any venture of international fascism because his movement wasestrictamente nacional (strictly national).[9]
The conference was not able to bridge the gulf between those participants who proposed achieving national integration by acorporative socio-economic policy and those who favored an appeal to race.[10] Pretensions to "universal fascism" could not survive this rift, and the movement did not meet its goal of acting as a counterbalance to international communism.[10]
The CAUR did not win official endorsement from the Italian Fascist Party or the Spanish Falange. It was unsuccessful either to present a commonly agreed definition as to what "fascism" was or to unite most major fascist parties into one international movement.
