Cross of Fire French:Croix-de-Feu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | François de La Rocque |
| Founded | 11 November 1927 |
| Dissolved | 10 January 1936 |
| Succeeded by | French Social Party |
| Headquarters | Rue de Milan,Paris |
| Newspaper | Le Flambeau |
| Student wing | Groupes Universitaires |
| Youth wing | Fils et Filles de Croix-de-Feu |
| Women's wing | Sections Féminines |
| Paramilitary wing | Volontaires Nationaux |
| Membership | 15,000 (1936est.) |
| Ideology | French nationalism Social corporatism Fascism[1] |
| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Colours | Black |
TheCroix-de-Feu (French:[kʁwadəfø],Cross of Fire) was anationalist Frenchleague of theinterwar period, led byColonel François de la Rocque (1885–1946). After it was dissolved, as were all other leagues during thePopular Front period (1936–38), La Rocque established theParti social français (PSF) to replace it.
TheCroix-de-Feu (CF) were primarily a group of veterans of theFirst World War, those who had been awarded theCroix de guerre 1914-1918. The group was founded on 26 November 1927 byMaurice d'Hartoy, who led it until 1929. The honorary presidency was awarded to writerJacques Péricard. Also in 1929, the movement acquired its newspaper,Le Flambeau. At its creation, the movement was subsidized by the wealthy perfumerFrançois Coty and was hosted in the building ofLe Figaro.[citation needed]
It benefited from theCatholic Church's 1926 proscription of theAction Française, which prohibited Catholics from supporting the latter. Manyconservative Catholics became members of the Croix-de-feu instead, includingJean Mermoz and the youngFrançois Mitterrand.[2]
Unlike theUnions latines, which had promotedalgérianité (Algerianness) and gained the support of French settlers, the CF adopted a new approach. European settlers in Algeria tended to support authoritarian and imperialist governments overFrench republicanism. They wereanti-Semitic andxenophobic. Believing that Algerian Europeans were a new race, they saw themselves as "youthful, virile and brutal" andMetropolitan France as "degenerate, effeminate and weak". They often resorted to the use of force against Muslim and Jewish Algerians.[3]
The Croix-de-feu had a massivepropaganda campaign that won thousands of members inConstantine andAlgiers. 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 inOran, more similar toJules Molle and the Union's latines, because Oran had fewer Muslims and was more anti-Semitic.[4]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
UnderLieutenant-ColonelFrançois de La Rocque, who took over in 1930, the Croix-de-Feu took its independence from François Coty and left the building ofLe Figaro for rue de Milan. It organised popular demonstrations in reaction to theStavisky Affair in the hope of overthrowing the SecondCartel des gauches, a left-wing coalition government. La Rocque quickly became a hero of thefar right, which opposed the influences ofsocialism and "hiddenCommunism" but was sceptical about becomingcounterrevolutionary.
Under la Rocque, the movement advocated a military effort against the "German danger" and supportedcorporatism 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 the monarchistAction française and its sloganPolitique d'abord! "Politics First!"), de la Rocque invented the mottoSocial 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; aminimum wage and paid holidays;women's suffrage (also upheld by the monarchist Action française, which considered that women, often devout, would be more favourable to their conservative thesis) etc.[citation needed]
The Croix de Feu was one of the right-wing groups that pushed anti-Semitic politics in 1935. Along withVolontaires Nationaux and others, the Croix de Feu used the political developments inMetropolitan France like the election ofLéon Blum, a Jewish Prime Minister, and thePopular 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 theRadical Party newspaperLe Republicain de Constantine) and physical violence and attacks against Jews. The Croix de Feu acted in concert with other anti-Semitic parties, including theRassemblement National d'Action Sociale led byAbbé Lambert,Action française andParti Populaire français. Membership in Croix de Feu grew from 2,500 in 1933 to 8,440 in 1935 and 15,000 in 1936.[5]
The Croix-de-Feu did not participate in the 1932 demonstrations organised by the Action française and the far-right leaguesJeunesses Patriotes against the debt payment to the United States. The Croix-de-feu, however, took part in the massiverally of 6 February 1934, which led to the toppling of the SecondCartel des gauches (Left-Wing Coalition). Still, La Rocque refused to riot, although parts of the Croix-de-Feu disagreed with him. It had circled thePalais 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.[citation needed] However, as a result of La Rocque's actions during the riots, it subsequently lost prestige among the far-right before it was dissolved by thePopular Front government on 18 June 1936.
La Rocque then formed theFrench 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 theSecond World War, which would make it the first French conservative mass party. Although itssloganTravail, Famille, Patrie ("Work, Family, Fatherland") was later used byVichy France to replace the Republican sloganLiberté, Egalité, Fraternité, the party remained eclectic. The party disappeared with theFall of France without having had the opportunity to profit from its immense popularity.[citation needed]
During theoccupation of France, La Rocque joined theFrench Resistance but was the subject of considerable controversy immediately after the war.[citation needed]
The Parti Social Français 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 bySocial Christianity.
Historians now consider that he paved the way for the French Christian democratic parties: the postwarPopular Republican Movement (MRP) and the GaullistRally for France. The historian William D. Irvine stated:
Historians have argued that the Croix-de-Feu were a distinctly-French variant of the Europeanfascist 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.[7][8]
Most contemporaryFrench historians (René Rémond,Pierre Milza and François Sirinelli in particular) do not classify 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."[9] 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 the 1968 third edition of "La droite en France", his major work[10] he defines fascism in Europe as a
revolt of thedeclassés, 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 theFaisceau, a tiny minority compared with the Croix-de-Feu, whose membership peaked at over a million.[11]The Israeli historianZeev Sternhell, on the other hand, has argued for the existence of a native French fascism and for groups like theCercle 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 the fascists.[12]
Sternhell, interested in fascism as an "anti-material revision of Marxism" or an anti-capitalist, cultish,corporatist extreme nationalism,[13] points out that groups like theJeunesses Patriotes, the revivedLigue 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 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".[14]
The American journalistJohn Gunther in 1940 described La Rocque as a "French Fascist No. 1, the chief potential FrenchMarch-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.[15] Other scholars, such asRobert Soucy andWilliam 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 a paramilitary aesthetic and initially advocatingcollaboration with the Germans during the Second World War, finally came out against the more radical supporters ofNazi Germany.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
