French Popular Party (Libère-toi France !)

The French Popular Party (French: Parti populaire français, PPF) was a French far-right political party and attached to fascism.

The PPF comes from the French nationalist, anti-Masonic, antisemitic and Corporatist culture developed during the late XIXth century mixed with fascism and anti-communism of 1920s. The PPF's strategy focused on anti-capitalist, anti-Comintern and national communist rhetoric, although this was later very quickly downplayed due to the support of business leaders and banks, by January 1937, the party will focus mainly on anti-communist and corporatist themes.

As Italian fascists, PPF promoted a corporatist economic system whereby employer and employee syndicates are linked together in associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy. This economic system intended to resolve class conflict through collaboration between the classes.

Fascism of the PPF fits traditionally of French fascism, but unlike the French action and Far-right leagues of the 1920s. The PPF fascism (which not describe himself as fascism), do not reject the Republican history and integrate in his doctrine french socialitst history elements (Paris Commune, French Revolution, historic figures of French socialism, etc...). PPF main doctrine is not on form of government but the constitution of a French "Popular" State and the establishment of a national and social revolution which throw the base of a New France.

The PPF gathers at its creation a great political diversity, although the majority of the cadres come from communism or socialism, most of its members were either from the far-right, and in particular from the leagues dissolved in 1936, or had never been affiliated with a party before.

Jacques Doriot, the party's leader and founder, was appointed President of Council Ministers by Chief of French State Philippe Pétain on 30 November 1938, after the Coup of 17-18 December and the winning of Freedom Front. Doriot (and Pétain) established a fascist regime know as the French State.

Historical background
France after the Great Depression (1929) experienced a significant rise in unemployment. The French economy is completely shattered and has failed to recover what it lost during the Great War (1914-1918). Since 1925, France has been leading a deflationary monetary policy, austerity budget that does not relaunch the economy. The ministerial instability of the years 1928 and 1932 paralyzes the management of the country, added to the tensions within the already preoccupying French society, between the left-wing forces (communists and socialists) and the anti-parliamentary extreme right-wing leagues, from France a country on the edge of the abyss. In 1932, a Radical-Socialist alliance won the elections under the name Second Cartel of the Left, which led to the formation of the third Herriot government, but the SFIO refused to participate in the government, and the parliamentary majority, formed by the radicals, allies to middle-right "moderates" proved unstable. A new departmental waltz succeeds, and in full turmoil explodes the Stavisky Affair, a political and economic crisis that occurred in January 1934, succeeding the death under mysterious circumstances of the swindler Alexander Stavisky, known as "the handsome Sacha". Parliamentarians, ministers and even the handsome brother of the head of government are involved in the affair, anti-parliamentary leagues unleashed and a violent demonstration occurred on February 6, 1934. The fear of a failed fascist coup crossed French republican forces. Unitary manifestations (communists, socialists, radicals etc ...) popular anti-fascists are organized and call for the formation of the Popular Front. Alliance of Leftist Parties (PCF-SFIO-PRRRS) to stop Fascism. The Popular Front won 1936 legislative elections and formed the first socialist government in the history of France headed by Leon Blum.

Jacques Doriot, is a metalworker born in 1898, socialist at the age of 18, he is mobilized and sent to the front, decorated with the Croix de Guerre but also sentenced to one month in prison for indiscipline he is demobilized in 1920. Partisan of the Third International, he joined the communist youth and became a rising star of the PC-SFIC. Doriot is noted for his voluntarism and anti-colonial agitation against the Rif War (he is sentenced to one year in prison). The leadership of the French Communist Party was uncertain, and the ambitious Doriot saw himself leader of the party, winning a personal victory in 1932 (only communist elected in the first round), he left for Moscow to claim the leadership of the party. The Commintern resists these ambitions, and marks the beginning of the end of Doriot within the PCF, the mayor of Saint-Denis isolates himself in his constituency breaking the discipline of the party by spying unauthorized anti-fascist gatherings with socialists and radicals.

These speeches are unitary, but also a decree for the Communist Party, claiming that the Party must be sacrificed for the benefit of the Front. The central committee condemns Jacques Doriot of deviasionism and is expelled from the PCF in 1934 while Thorez officially adopts a tactic of the Popular Front. Doriot is a base but is in a ballot, forming an alliance with the right against the PCF and after the election of 1936, soon after, Gabriel Le Roy Ladurie, president of the bank Worms, makes contact with him. He represents the big companies who want to destroy the base of the Popular Front, and asks Doriot to form a political party to help him in this maneuver.

Birth of the Party
The French Popular Party was created in June 1936 by Jacques Doriot, in his bastion of Saint-Denis. At the level of leaders as well as militants, the two largest contingents of members of the PPF come from the French Communist Party and the nationalist leagues (including Croix-de-Feu, weary of the moderation of Colonel de La Rocque), the French Action, Solidarity French and some people from the Frenchism of Marcel Bucard, like Vauquelin Yveteaux, in charge of propaganda at the PPF. At the origins of the PPF, we thus find the materialization of the slogan of Simon Sabiani (main leader of PPF): "No right, no left, French first!". More specifically, the first leaders of the PPF will come from the following groups: The PPF has a very rapid start in 1936 and 1937, boosted by anti-communism growing in reaction to the Popular Front. Gabriel Le Roy Ladurie gathered around the party a team of intellectuals. The PPF and Jacques Doriot arouse great hope among his supporters: Jacques Benoist-Méchin said: " I do not hesitate to say that no French political party ever had such a potential intellectual ". In the same way, Pierre Pucheu will write: " I have not known, in our generation, of man who has received so much from heaven, qualities of statesman ". In addition to its intellectual and militant support, the PPF receives funding from big business through the intermediary of Pierre Pucheu and Gabriel Le Roy Ladurie (director of the bank Worms). The high bank, including Jewish, is very present: "including Bank Vernes, Rothschild Brothers Bank, L. Louis-Dreyfus Bank, Lazard Bank, BNCI and Bank of Indochina".
 * The Doriot "clans" in the Paris region, Simon Sabiani in Marseille and Jean Médecin, Mayor of Nice.
 * A hard core that is known since the "plot of the Acacia" (in the second half of 1933), which brought together, around the neo-socialists (who will leave late 1933), including former members of the PCF (Paul Marion, Victor Arrighi), members of the extreme right (Jean-Marie Aimot, Claude Jeantet) in view of a strong state.
 * Dissidents of the Croix-de-Feu, who have just been dissolved following the promulgation of the Law of 10 January 1936 on private combat groups and militias (Yves Paringaux, Pierre Pucheu, Bertrand de Maud'huy, Robert Loustau, Claude Popelin).
 * Renovating and unconventional leftist intellectuals (Drieu la Rochelle, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Alfred Fabre-Luce).
 * Then right-wing intellectuals such as Eugenics doctor Alexis Carrel, Paul Chack and Abel Bonnard, who participated in the development of the economic program in 1937.

Freedom Front
Developed in autumn 1936, the idea of the Freedom Front is exposed by Jacques Doriot in The Day of April 20, 1937. The goal according to the leader of the French Popular Party is to defend the freedoms allegedly flouted by the Popular Front ( freedom to speak, think, work, press and trade) by grouping the "national" parties that oppose collectivism. At the national congress of his party in Clichy on May 7, Doriot reiterated his appeal by making the Freedom Front an instrument for "compliance with the constitutional rules of the Third Republic" threatened - according to him - by the SFIC led by Moscow. Following a meeting at the end of May between various components of the rights, the Freedom Front is officially launched during a meeting at the Velodrome d'Hiver on 22 June 1937 gathering the leaders of the PRNS, the PPF, Philippe Henriot and Xavier Vallat representing the Republican Federation.

The Freedom Front wants to be the French version of the Harzburg Front, and the entrance of the French Social Party of Colonel de La Rocque is decisive to hope for any victory of the alliance. But Francois de La Rocque aware that the Republican Federation and the French Popular Party have launched this "defensive coalition" in order to dislocate his formation, opposes to bring the PSF. Moreover Doriot's personalization of the Liberty Front cools the colonel the more so as the PPF leader does not act in the sense of the unity of the right-wing forces.

But the attacks of the Cagoule (OSARN) - which begin after the victory of the Popular Front - intensify by their violence and their numbers. The attempt of L'Etoile the 11 September 1937 - aimed at accusing the Communists - makes the Cagoule discover the general public, but still remains elusive and unpredictable in its actions. Joseph Darnand suspected member of the Cagoule - is actually a member - and head of the south-east section of the Order Service of the PPF (and the Cagoule) is pushed to leave the party in late 1936. Although Doriot wants the power he does not wish to be compromised in the illegal acts of the hood, or rather he publicly manifests this distancing but the events of the night of 15 to 16 November 1937 will completely return these statements and acts. Freedom Front 1937.jpg in a delicate position. Doriot and the PPF assumed the role of defender of France against communism as well as the Freedom Front, basically conceived as "a defensive alliance". Events give the wrong role to Colonel de La Rocque. On November 27, 1937, Jacques Doriot launches in his newspaper L'Émancipation nationale a call to reinforce the Freedom Front and thus to enter the French Social Party. François de La Rocque responds first in the internal newspaper of the party, Le Flambeau by a long article to the members; "The events push us to revise in depth our actions taken since the last 6 months ..... After long debates with the Steering Committee, it is decided that it is time for the union of nationals and patriots, the egos must desolate get rid of this union and have the primary goal of regaining order and defend our dear country." 1st December 1937 in PSF's large-scale newspaper, Le Petit Journal, with the following phrase "Nationals, all, behind the Freedom Front!" de La Rocque answers Doriot.
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French Popular State
The PPF's institutional program is intended to inherit the demands of Constitutionalist revisionists, Bonarpartists and national republicans. The party thus claims to keep the republican institutions, without excluding, however, from modifications: "Nous restons républicains" ("We remain republicans)", since in the case of a change of regime "la question ne paraît pas mûre pour l'instant" ("the question does not seem ripe for the moment"). This possibility of changing the regime in a more authoritarian sense attracts elements of the radical right, including former militants of the French Action, disappointed by the immobility of Maurras.

Concerning the parliament, he only demands that the assemblies be reduced to a role of control and let the executive run the country; later, the "French Popular State" will transform the Chambers into corporate and advisory assemblies, where the major economic and social interests, metropolitan and colonial, national and regional, will be represented. He is in favor of greater decentralization of power, in favor of the regions.

Doriot then evokes the three essential levers, according to him, of the modern state: the council of provinces, the council of corporations, the council of the empire. The council of corporations, created in 1940 as Chambre populaire des corporations (Popular Chamber of Corporations) - will replace the Chamber of Deputies in 1941 - is modeled on the Italian Chamber of Fasci and Corporations. It includes representatives of the trades defined in the Labor Charter of 1940. The council of provinces, created in 1939 as Conseil des régions et départements (Council of Regions and Departments), regarding the regional council, he developed the idea that it is within the regional framework that economic and social organizations, employer and union associations come together, for which the department represents a narrow framework: "The region would allow to concentrate the means of action of the country, to avoid the scattering of the efforts; it would allow the 25 great clerks of the State to do a long-term constructive work, where the 90 prefects, prisoners of local politicians, can only carry out the initiation of small works of local interest ”; the provincial council would have the task of "guiding, coordinating, inspiring the work of our provinces, with the government". The concil of the empire, created in 1945, as Grand conseil de l'Empire (Great Council of the Empire).

Corporatist economy
The PPF program and economic policy is intended to be corporatist.

Although the PPF believes that the state should be the arbiter between the working class and the employers, there is never any question of corporate nationalization. "L'Etat est grand stratège, non grand propriétaire" "(The State is a grad strategist, not a big owner"), this is the definition given by Bertrand de Jouvenel of what is the economy of the Marshalist regime under Doriot and the PPF. The corporatist economy defined by the PFF is at its foundations; anti-Marxist, anti-liberal and nationalist. In his report to the 2nd Congress of the PPF, the member of the Political Bureau Robert Loustau, called for the formation of a "French social order". In the first pages of his report he said "Our mission is to restore and create the institutions where solidarity between men can flourish, where they will feel what unites them more strongly than what divides them".

In his report, he develops and theorizes the return and creation of this French social order. The company is the basis of human society in capitalism, it finds itself perverted by finance and its system which destroys it. To fight this finance, workers and bosses must come together and form a common fund aimed at supplanting this finance to regain control of the company. So to combat it better, a military hierarchy must prevail in the business. The technical and economic domain of the liberated company is: the Company manager who has all power.

Finance uses another means to fight this hierarchy, the syndicat. For Loustau, Marxism, which is the same face of the capitalist piece with liberalism, has invaded the syndicat. To work towards the French social order and cooperative unity, "syndicalism must turn its back on Marxism"

Liberated from its two chains, liberal-financial capitalism and Marxist communism. Work organized in professional groups then takes place in the national economy, this economy under state arbitration must fulfill social and economic missions. The social mission; aims at the well being of the professional group.The economic mission; aims to maintain material professional groups. To meet these missions, professional groups are grouped into economic groupings.

So to link all this, the State must return, playing its role of abitre but also of protector. "The new national state" must re-establish its authority, to uphold and protect "the French social order" under the aegis of the PPF and Doriot.

Marechalisme
Arising directly from French nationalist thought. The figure of the head, crowned with military glory, coming to take the direction of the French state in a difficult moment is a permanent motive in the French right-wing movements. Since Napoleon Bonaparte and the Empire, many soldiers became these new Bonapartes with more or less success, from Marshal Soult under the July Monarchy to Louis Napoleon Bonarparte - Napoleon III with the Second Empire.

After the Boulanger affair, the nationalist forces moved to the right, and the idea of the return of a strong power under the boot of an officer is very attractive, especially since the instability of the Third Republic on the government level is destructive, especially between 1928 and 1936.

Thus, in reaction to the formation of the Popular Front, the nationalist leagues and French facies parties called on a providential man to the rescue. It is the former socialist and anti-militarist, who became during the war, a pro-fascist nationalist Gustave Hervé, who launches in his newspaper La Victoire, the brochure: "It's Pétain we need" echoing the baker's slogan "It's Boulanger we need!" and the idea of ​​a French military power to stem the communist threat, a dominant fear on the French right.

The PPF salutes the assets of the military leadership. But in its pre coup d'état program, no motion and call is made for the constitution of a military power at the head of France. Only the figure of Jacques Doriot counts, but during the formation of the Front de la Liberté, little by little the idea of ​​a state led by a great officer became apparent in the speeches of PPF officials. With the establishment of the French State after the Coup of 17-18 December, with Philippe Pétain, the PPF displayed its total support for the Marshal. At the 4th PPF Congress, Jacques Doriot launches this famous phrase "We are Marshal's men!" Thus in the process of taking power from the PFF in the new state, the portraits of Pétain and Doriot are systematically together. The Marshal and the Chef this is how the propaganda of the PPF presents them, two complementary entities but which remain hierarchical.

Top leadership
At the top of PPF was the party chairman ("Le Chef"), who held full command over the party. The PFF leadership copies the leadership of the Nazy party and applies an equivalent of the Führerprinzip in 1938 at the 3rd Congress of the PPF with the principle of "Volonté du Chef".

Poliburo
Below the Chef, the PPF is directed by a central committee. Imitating the direction of Communist Parties, the PPF is lead by a political bureau (Poliburo) when it was created, was supposed to maintain a kind of "national democratic centralism", which according to Doriot, "had been distorted by Stalinist communism and submission to the Commintern". The truth was very far from the basic postulate and in reality the Poliburo was only a supletive to the will of Chef Doriot.

The first Poliburo of PPF in 1936 was composed: 8 members The quasi-domination of communists in the PPF poliburo will last only one year, the rapid rightization of the PPF with the Freedom Front will see the disappearance of the ruling spheres of the Communists to be relegated to symbolic or subsidiary roles.
 * Chef : Jacques Doriot.
 * General Secretary (until 1939): Henri Barbé (member of the Political Bureau of the French Communist Party from 1927, one of the four leaders in 1929-1930, excluded from the PCF in 1934, general secretary of the PPF from 1936 to 1939.
 * Chief North Africa: Victor Arrighi (member of the French Communist Party, director of the Workers 'and Peasants' Bank of the PCF, then Radical-Socialist from 1930 to 1936. At the PPF in 1936, he will be one of the main architects of the policy of Déjuiverisation from French North Africa.
 * Spokesperson: Paul Marion (French Communist Party member, 1922), PCF Central Committee (1926), secretary of the Agit-prop section. In 1927-1929, in Moscow, he belongs to the propaganda office of the Comintern. Break with the PC in 1929, joined the SFIO then the USR, pacifist left neo-socialist (Notre temps). Then joined the PPF (1936) where he will be editor of the L'Émancipation nationale then La Liberté. After 1940: will be minister of information in the government of Doriot.
 * Jules Teulade (member of the French Communist Party, secretary of the CGTU Building Federation, delegate of the Profintern in 1926-1928, writing in L'Humanité, then member of the Political Bureau of the PPF (1936), collaborates with La Liberté, L'Émancipation nationale, Le Cri du peuple, also co-leader of the Immediate Relief Workers Committee from 1942 to 1944).
 * Alexandre Abremski (former communist councilor of Saint-Denis, a Jewish friend of Jacques Doriot, whom he followed in 1934. Accidental death in 1938).
 * Marcel Marschall (former communist councilor of Saint-Denis, followed by Doriot in 1934. Becomes mayor of Saint-Denis after the seizure of power of Doriot. In 1938: executed during the purges of December 1938).
 * Yves Paringaux (engineer, former Volontaire Nationale of the Croix-de-Feu, at the PPF in 1936, will be in Pierre Pucheu's cabinet in the government of Doriot).

Directoire
The takeover of the PPF on the French state apparatus naturally has internal consequences within the party. Wanting to completely purge any references to the "national communist" claims of the beginning, the Poliburo was dissolved in June 1939 to be replaced by a Party Directory. Hiding his communist heritage for a Bonapartist legacy. The PPF incorporating many personality and figures from the classical right and far-right parties.

The Directoire ("Directory"), also called the Directoire populaire ("Popular Directory"), operates on a principle equivalent to the Grand Council of Fascism. Until the 4th Congress of the PPF, the Poliburo was still subject to a vote of approval (without real interest) but the Directory is now appointed by Doriot, the congresses are then relegated to the rank of demonstrations of official strength.

Paramilitary groups
The initial PPF differs from the PNF and the NSDAP by the absence of paramilitary means such as Squadrismo or SA, although the PPF is a Command Service. After the coup of December 1937, the PPF immediately switches to paramilitarism and anti-communist street fighting of high intensity over a short period (.see, fighting in Saint-Denis). In response to street fighting, the PPF quickly formed paramilitary organizations by merging many leagues of former combatants. These groups are militarized and supervised by officers of the French army.

The major French Popular Party paramilitary groups were as follows: The Union Of The French Popular Youth was a paramilitary group divided into an adult leadership corps and a general membership open aged fourteen to eighteen. The Doriot Pionners was the equivalent group for aged six to fourteen.
 * Service d'ordre (SO): "Order Service"
 * Milice nationale populaire (MNP): "National Popular Militia"

Affiliated organisations
Certain nominally independent organisations had their own legal representation and own property, but were supported by the French Popular Party. Many of these associated organisations were labour unions of various professions. Some were older organisations that which passes under the control of PPF according to the Popularisation policy after the 1938 takeover. The employees of large businesses with international operations such as Banque de France, Banque d'Indochine, Banque Worms, Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie, etc... were mostly party members. All French businesses abroad were also required to have their own French Popular Party, which enabled the party leadership updated and excellent intelligence on the actions of the global corporate elites.
 * Scouts of France
 * Guides of France
 * Association of Mayors of France (AMF)
 * French League of Thought (LPF)
 * Immediate Relief Workers Committee (COSI) also call Cosi.
 * Watchfulness Committee of Anti-Bolshevik Intellectuals (CVIAB) an anti-Bolshevik association modeled on the Watchfulness Committee of Antifascist Intellectuals (CVIA),will become in 1940 the Anti-Bolshevik Action Committee.
 * French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems (Fondation Carrel, (FFEPH))
 * National Union of Fighters (UNC) and Republican Association of Veterans (ARAC) (merged to form in 1938 the Popular Union of Figthers and Veterans (UNCV))
 * League of Fathers and Mothers of Large Families (become in 1940, League of French Family)
 * Popular Confederation of Work (CPT)
 * Social Front of Work (FST)
 * Popular Union of Education (UPE)
 * Peasant Center (CP)

Slogans and songs

 * PPF slogans:
 * En avant, Jacques Doriot! (Ahead, Jacques Doriot!)
 * En avant Saint Denis, PPF vaincra! (Ahead Saint Denis, PPF will win!)
 * Un grand chef, un grand technicien (A great chef, a great technician)
 * Pour un syndicalisme national ouvrier (contre l'émigration étrangère) (For a national workers unionism (against foreign emigration))
 * Pour un gouvernement de salut antimarxiste (For a government of anti-Marxist salvation)
 * Pour la paix dans la fierté et l'honneur (For peace in pride and honor)
 * Un chef, une mystique, une doctrine (A leader, a mystic, a doctrine)
 * Unité, Force, Honneur (Unity, Strength, Honor)
 * France, libère-toi ! (France, free yourself !)
 * Il n'y a pas de discipline sans fraternité (There is no discipline without fraternity)
 * Nous sommes des hommes du Maréchal (We are Marshal's men)
 * PPF song:
 * France, libère-toi !