 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2009) |
Francist Movement Mouvement franciste | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Marcel Bucard |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Banned | 1944 |
| Preceded by | Le Faisceau[1] |
| Headquarters | Vichy, France |
| Newspaper | Le Francisme |
| Paramilitary wing | Blueshirts |
| Membership | 10,000 (1933 est.) |
| Ideology | Francism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Colours | Blue Red Gold |
| Party flag | |
 | |
The Francist Movement (French: Mouvement franciste, MF) was a French fascist and anti-semitic league created by Marcel Bucard in September 1933 that edited the newspaper Le Francisme. Mouvement franciste reached a membership of 10,000 and was financed by the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. Its members were deemed the francistes or Chemises bleues (Blueshirts) and gave the Roman salute (a paramilitary character that was mirrored in France by François Coty's Solidarité Française).
It took part in the Paris protests of 6 February 1934, during which the entire far right (from Action Française to Croix-de-Feu) protested the implications of the Stavisky Affair and possibly attempted to topple Édouard Daladier's government. It incorporated the Solidarité française after Coty's death later in the same year.
All of the movements that participated in the 6 February riots were outlawed in 1936, when Léon Blum's Popular Front government passed new legislation on the matter. After a failed attempt in 1938, the movement was refounded as a political party (Parti franciste) in 1941, after France had been overrun by Nazi Germany.
Together with Jacques Doriot's Parti Populaire Français and Marcel Déat's Rassemblement National Populaire, the francistes were the main collaborators of the Nazi occupiers and Vichy France. The Parti Franciste did not survive the end of World War II, and was considered treasonous. Bucard was executed as a collaborator after the war.
- ^ (Bucard was a member of Le Faisceau, and many elements of the Mouvement originated from Le Faisceau)