National Popular Rally

Rassemblement National Populaire ( RNP, German: National Association of the People) was a French party that represented the collaboration with the German occupying power under the Vichy regime. The party was founded in 1941 by Marcel Deat, and was both the ideas of Italian Fascism and the French Neosozialismus close. With the end of the German occupation of France in the summer of 1944 and the flight of the party founder, after Germany, the RNP disbanded.

History

Founder and dominant figure in the RNP was Marcel Deat. DEAT in 1933 excluded from the French Section of the Workers ' International and subsequently founded his own party PSDF, with whom he briefly could obtain a ministerial post in the Cabinet Sarraut 1936. In the summer of 1940 the German Wehrmacht defeated the French army and the BEF in the western campaign and France capitulated. After the proclamation of the Vichy regime DEAT presented its first formation of a French unit party. In December 1940, the French police arrested DEAT briefly.

In February 1941, DEAT eventually founded the RNP, which should be the most important political representatives of the French Parti Populaire Français collaboration in addition to the ( PPF) by Jacques Doriot and the Parti Franciste by Marcel Bucard. The German occupation authorities ordered an immediate merger of RNP and the Right Wing Party MSR by Eugène Deloncle, a member of the terrorist Cagoule. The first joint management committee of RNP MSR consisted of two representatives of the RNP and three of the MSR: Marcel Deat, Jean VANOR, Eugène Deloncle, Jean Fontenoy and Jean Goy.

The fusion of RNP and MSR proved to be a failure. In part this was a result of different political origins of members: The RNP recruited mainly among former supporters of the French left, while the MSR members of the extreme right came from. So there was no mixing of RNP and MSR. Instead retained the MSR de facto independence within the RNP MSR and formed the security service of the Party. On August 27, 1941 Paul Collette made ​​an assassination attempt on Pierre Laval, the prime minister in the Cabinet Pétain, and Marcel Deat. After Deat accused the MSR to be mastermind of the assassination. In October 1941, the MSR was excluded from the RNP, which resulted in a phase of reorganization of the RNP until early 1942.

The ideology of the RNP was aligned clearly fascist, which was reflected in their anti -Semitic and racist policy and great admiration for Nazi Germany. However, there were differences with respect to the orientation of the PPF by Jacques Doriot: The RNP held certain Republican principles such as universal suffrage, free access to education and anti-clericalism and entered as the preservation of the Mariana statues in town halls for corresponding symbolic gestures. These political ideas ensured constant conflicts between the RNP and the more reactionary elements of the Vichy government, which came from the national révolution were close to the monarchist and ultra-right Action Française.

Tactically supported the RNP Pierre Laval and criticized the " Vichy reactionaries " and the PPF. Marcel Deat maintained close relations with the German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz, while Doriot oriented to the SS. After Laval had come back into the Vichy government in April 1942, DEAT undertook great efforts to create a united party of the collaboration, whose sole leadership he aspired. In November 1942, the RNP leader DEAT and Georges Albertini met with MSR leaders like Georges Soulès. As a result of this meeting the RNP leadership founded the Front National Revolutionaire ( FRN ), which bundled the most important collaboration parties except the Doriot Party PPF: RNP, MSR, Parti Franciste, Groupe Collaboration, Jeunes de l'Europe nouvelle and the Comité d ' Action Antibolchévique.

Next DEAT won for his thing Jean Fossati, the Secretary-General of the PPF. To the Head of FRN appointed DEAT originating from the PPF Henri Barbé. Ultimately, however, the PPF was a failure.

In March 1944, DEAT was appointed Minister of Labour and National Solidarity. He used this opportunity to appoint RNP followers to ministerial assistants, including Georges Albertini, Georges Dumoulin, Ludovic Zoretti and Gabriel Lafaye. From this point on, however, DEAT concentrated more on his job as a minister, and neglected the RNP.

After landing in Normandy and the breakthrough of the Allies during the encirclement battle of Falaise, the capture of Paris was foreseeable. DEAT escaped on 17 August 1944 to Germany, where he found refuge with other members of the Government Pétain in Sigmaringen. Of the RNP Mitglieern accompanied him only Roland Gaucher, who had led the youth organization of the RNP.

Organization

The RNP had the time of their greatest success up to 30,000 members .. Other definitions speak of only 2,638 party members, of whom nearly 13% were industrial workers ..

Main publication of RNP was the magazine Le National Populaire, which was directed by Roland Gaucher. The party was also providing support of Deats daily L' oeuvre.

The youth organization of the RNP was the Jeunesse national populaires ( JNP ), among others, was directed by Roland Silly and Roland Gaucher. Gaucher 1972 should belong to the co-founders of the National Front.

Known RNP members

The RNP was led by a standing committee of 15 members. In February 1943, these included:

  • As President: Marcel Deat
  • Socialistes Georges Albertini, formerly secretary of the Jeunesse: as Secretary-General
  • Vice-President ( from January 1943): Maurice Levillain ( neo- socialist )
  • Vice-President ( from January 1943): Michel glasses, former deputy of the Alliance démocratique
  • Henri Barbé, former Politburo member of the Parti Communiste Français, there ruled in 1934 and 1936 to 1939 Secretary General of the PPF
  • René Benedetti, neo- socialist
  • Francis Desphilippon
  • Georges Dumoulin
  • Emile Favier, neo- socialist
  • Jacques Guionnet
  • Gabriel Lafaye, neo- socialist, in 1938, was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of Camille Chautemps
  • Barthélémy Montagnon, formerly representative of France in the Section Française de l' International ouvrière, 1933 excluded, then neo- socialist
  • Georges Rivollet, 1934-35 Minister of War Veterans
  • Roland Silly, formerly a member of the Section Française de l' International ouvrière
  • Ludovic Zoretti, union official

Excluded were, inter alia:

  • Jean Goy, Conservative, ruled 1942 to " moderate"
  • Charles Spinasse, Minister of the Popular Front, ruled 1942 to " moderate"
  • René Château excluded 1943

More RNP members:

  • François Brigneau, later co-founder of the National Front )
  • Pierre Celor
  • Roland Gaucher, later co-founder of the National Front
  • André Grisoni
  • Fernand Hamard
  • Henri Jacob
  • Paul Perrin
Albert Sarraut La Cagoule Right-wing politics Marianne Falaise pocket National Front (France) The New York Review of Books Le Monde
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