At the time of the creation of the National Front, were there “42 great resistance fighters”?

“I have listed 42 great resistance fighters who stood at the founding of the party.” Asked on France 3 on Sunday, June 4, about the origins of the National Front, founded by her father in 1972 and renamed National Rally in 2018, Marine Le Pen referred to the Resistance figures, repeating the words of Elizabeth Bourne. A few days earlier, the Prime Minister believed that the RN was“Heir of Pétain” and that Marine Le Pen’s victory in the next election “real threat”.

After the departure of the head of government, RN members have sought to pursue their strategy of demonization, even if it means rewriting history. In response to questions from the press, the Elysee Palace believes that “The National Front was founded by people nostalgic for Vichy.” Nonsense, also and especially for historians and ultra-right specialists. IN Origins of the National Fronthistorian Grégoire Kauffmann points out, for example, that the party “originates from ‘revolutionary nationalism’, the ideology carried by the young neo-fascists of the New Order movement.”

Thus, the FN was built around supporters of French Algeria, fierce opponents of General de Gaulle, and also around people accused of collaborationism during World War II. Specialist Jean-Yves Camus also reminded him in 2015. Latest news from Alsace, “NF’s ties to collaborators, revisionists and French Algeria remain linked to Jean-Marie Le Pen, hence FN”. The party charter was submitted by Jean-Marie Le Pen and Pierre Bousquet, a former member of the Waffen-SS.

That being said, what are these 42 names mentioned by Marine Le Pen worth? Asked, RN did not get back to us on this issue. On television, the elected Pas de Calais continued to refer to the figures of two French resistance fighters: Georges Bidault and Michel de Camaret. If the name of the first, the president of the National Resistance Council, is regularly associated with the NF, this is not a historical lie. “Georges Bidault does not even get to the end of the process of creating a party. He is a former resistance member who is there because he supports French Algeria, but he does not stay.” Nicolas Lebour, a historian specializing in the far right, recently reminded the newspaper World.

In the course of our research, we came across a list of resistance fighters who would somehow play a role in the party of Jean-Marie Le Pen. On the site lengadoc-info, which describes itself as “alternative and independent media in Occitania”, cited by 41 people. Some of them are great resistance figures, such as Roland Birzi, who rescued Jewish children during the war, while others are more anonymous. No source given, except that this list appears from 2014, on the article’s discussion forum Lyon Meg. This is also accepted Damien Ryo in 2021. Then these names could be found in a leaflet distributed in October at a conference organized for the 50th anniversary of the party, reports Worldnot being able to get confirmation.

As such, Nicolas Lebourg notes a great similarity between the words of Marine Le Pen and the people quoted here, with some named resistance fighters, such as Georges Bidault, who took part in the FN only sporadically. But not only. “We see in this list people who arrive in twenty or thirty years and people who are here primarily not because of their past as resistance fighters, but as supporters of French Algeria.”, — emphasizes TF1info historian, member of the Jean Jaurès Foundation. So he takes a cue from Pierre Serjean, “contacted New Order” when FN was started to make it “showcase” future party. “Not only does he refuse and will come to FN only after more than 10 years, but there is never, ever any doubt that Pierre Sergent represents the Resistance: he is there as ex-Captain Sergent, head of the Metropolitan SLA. (branch of the Secret Army Organization, ed.)and absolutely nothing else.

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