French and European Nationalist Party Parti Nationaliste Français et Européen (PNFE) | |
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| Founded | 1987; 38 years ago (1987) |
| Dissolved | 1999 |
| Split from | French Nationalist Party |
| Newspaper | Tribune nationaliste |
| Membership | 1000 |
| Ideology | White supremacism Ultranationalism Neo-Nazism Antisemitism Anti-immigration |
| Political position | Far-right |
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TheFrench and European Nationalist Party (French:Parti nationaliste français et européen orPNFE) was a Frenchnationalist militant organization active between 1987 and 1999. Led by Claude Cornilleau until 1996, its slogan was "France first, white always" (France d'abord, blanche toujours). It had around a thousand sympathizers at its height.[1]
The organization emerged in June 1985 as a splinter group of theFrench Nationalist Party,[2] and was officially announced in 1987 at Euroring, a European neo-Nazi conference, asParti Nationaliste Français et Européen (PNFE).[1]
The PNFE was made up of a mixture of former members of the outlawedFANE, and of neo-Nazi hardliners who had been expelled from theFront National (FN) whenJean-Marie Le Pen took on a respectable image after winning a few parliamentary seats in the1986 elections.[3] The PNFE quickly managed to establish various sections outside of Paris.[4] It had a national publication,Tribune nationaliste, established in October 1985,[2] and edited a magazine in each region:Charlemagne in theNord-Pas-de-Calais,Le Chêne inSeine-et-Marne, orLe Glaive in Paris.[4]
In July 1989, the head of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais section and editor-in-chief ofCharlemagne, Jean Beaussart, was assassinated by his daughter after years of abuse.[4][5] Beaussart regularly beat and humiliated his daughters, forcing them each morning to perform theNazi salute in front of a portrait ofAdolf Hitler, whom he had made them believe was their uncle. Ida Beaussart was eventually acquitted by the court.[5][6]
The PNFE had a largeNazi Skinhead following and has been blamed for a number of attacks on immigrants including the1988 Sonacotra attack against immigrant workers' hostel inNice for which 18 members were convicted in 1989. Amongst those initially held was Serge Lecanu, who had led theFédération professionnelle indépendante de la police (FPIP), a far right police trade union.[3] In 1990,Michel Lajoye, a PNFE member since 1988, received a life sentence for dropping a bomb in acafé owned by Arab immigrants.[7][2]
On 10 May 1990, a Jewish cemetery atCarpentras was desecrated, leading to public uproar and a protest demonstration in Paris, attended by 200,000 persons, including French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand. After several years of investigation, five people, among them three former members of the PFNE, confessed on 2 August 1996.[8][9] On 5 June 1990, the PNFE magazineTribune nationaliste was banned by the French authorities.[2]
FrenchHolocaust denierVincent Reynouard was a member of the PFNE and became briefly its secretary general in 1991.[10][11] In January 1996, Erik Sausset replaced Claude Cornilleau as the president of the organization.[2]
The group was compelled to dissolve in 1999.[1][2] Erik Sausset later became involved in theVölkisch movementTerre et Peuple. Another cadre of the PNFE, Didier Magnien, later joinedUnité Radicale, then migrated to Germany and turned into a member of theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in charge of the surveillance and repression of neo-Nazi activities.[12]Maxime Brunerie, who attempted to assassinateJacques Chirac in 2002 had been a member of the group between June and November 1998, leaving what he deemed to be an "agonizing party" to join instead theGroupe Union Défense, renamed Unité Radicale early that year.[13]
The movement sought to establish a "New Order" and dismissed the FN as a "so-called nationalist" party integrated to the system.[4] Overtly racist, the group compared black people with animals and the hatred of Jews is omnipresent in their writings.[1]
The PNFE had strong contacts with theBritish National Party and Cornilleau was often a speaker at their annual meetings, being a close friend ofJohn Tyndall. They regularly attended international rallies, notably inBelgium, where they cemented their links with the BNP as well as theVlaamse Militanten Orde.[14]
The group also built up links with theVlaams Blok andChristian Worch in Germany.[15] In Belgium they also co-operated withRenouveau nationaliste, a minor group established by former members of theParty of New Forces.[16] In 1991, a sister party was established in Switzerland as the Parti Nationaliste Suisse et Européen, later replaced by aHammerskins branch.[1]
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