The Rexist Party, or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic authoritarian and corporatistCook, Bernard A. (2005). Belgium: A History (3rd ed.). Peter Lang. p. 118. political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle.The rexist movement in Belgium, PhD thesis Martin Conway, 1989, University of Oxford It advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism. Initially, the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia, but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels. Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company .
The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party was 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the 1936 election.Richard Bonney Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939; International Academic Publishers; Bern; 2009 ; pp. 175–176 Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Rex was the most significant collaborationist group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the (VNV) in Flanders. By the war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following the liberation.
Initially modeled on Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism, it later drew closer to German Nazism. The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the Catholic Church in Belgium, but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church Cardinal van Roey, who called Rexism a "danger to the church and the country".
Ideology
The ideology of the Rexist Party developed over time and is generally divided between an early phase rooted in Catholic authoritarianism and a later phase characterized by explicit fascism. Scholars commonly interpret Rexism as a movement that evolved from religiously inspired social reform into a radical authoritarian project shaped by broader European fascist currents.
Authoritarianism The ideology of Rex, which was loosely based on the writings of Jean Denis, called for the “moral renewal” of Belgian society through the dominance of the Catholic Church by forming a corporatist society and abolishing liberal democracy. Denis became an enthusiastic member of Rex and later wrote for the party newspaper Le Pays Réel. The original programme of Rexism borrowed strongly from Charles Maurras’ integralism, reflecting a broader rejection of parliamentary liberalism and pluralism. The movement rejected liberalism, which it characterized as decadent, and opposed both Marxism and capitalism, instead advocating a corporatist economic model while idealising rural life, hierarchy, and traditional family values.
It emerged from the broader context of Catholic Action, seeking to translate religious activism into political transformation and to reshape Belgian society along moral and spiritual lines. Historians have debated whether Rex should be considered a fascist movement in this early period. Some scholars instead describe it as a populist, authoritarian, and conservative Catholic nationalist movement that initially sought to gain power through democratic means and did not aim to abolish democratic institutions outright.
Radicalization and fascist transformation The party increasingly adopted fascist-style rhetoric during the late 1930s, particularly after Léon Degrelle’s defeat in a by-election in April 1937. Following this setback, Rexism shifted toward open antisemitism, anti-parliamentarianism, and a more explicit alignment with the ideological model of German Nazism. Historian Roger Griffin characterizes the movement as “proto-fascist” in its early phase, becoming fully fascist only during the period of German occupation. This interpretation reflects a broader scholarly consensus that Rexism underwent a process of ideological radicalization rather than emerging as a fully developed fascist movement from the outset. Contemporary accounts reflected elements of this transformation. In 1937, Time magazine described Rexism as opposing parliamentary government and advocating “discipline, order and social regeneration on a Christian basis,” while presenting itself as a movement against established political parties and financial elites.
Political positioning and alliances The Rexist movement attracted support almost exclusively from Wallonia. On 6 October 1936, party leader Léon Degrelle made a secret agreement with the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV), led by Staf De Clercq, as both movements sought to establish corporatist systems. However, the alliance was short-lived. Unlike the Rexists, the VNV pursued Flemish separatism and union with the Netherlands, whereas Rex advocated Belgian unitarism. The agreement collapsed within a year. Rex also faced competition from the ideologically similar (but explicitly anti-German) led by Paul Hoornaert.
Burgundian nationalism On 17 January 1943, Degrelle gave a speech at an assembly of Rexists in Brussels in which he declared that Walloons were a Germanic people forced to adopt the French language. He proclaimed a new, revolutionary "Burgundian" nationalism within the framework of a pan-German state. Following the speech, Streel and much of Rex's old guard left the party, Walloon competitors to Rex for German favor evaporated, and Degrelle definitively turned his attentions away from Rex and towards the SS. Over the rest of January and February 1943, Degrelle met with Nazi functionaries in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to gain influence in the Nazi Party.
Pre-war politics The Rexist Party was founded in 1935 after its leader, Léon Degrelle, had left the mainstream Catholic Party, which he deemed too moderate. It targeted disappointed constituencies such as traditionalist Catholics, veterans, small traders and jobless people. In the Depression era, it initially won considerable popularity — mostly due to its leader's charisma and energy. Its most tremendous success was winning 11.5 per cent of the total vote in the 1936 election. On that occasion the Rexist Party took 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 8 out of 101 in the Senate, making it the fourth-strongest force in Parliament, behind the significant established parties (Labour, Catholic, Liberal).
However, the support for the party (even at its height) was extremely localized: Rexists succeeded in garnering over 30 per cent of the vote in the French-speaking province of Luxembourg, compared with just 9 per cent in equally French-speaking Hainaut. Degrelle admired Adolf Hitler's rise to power and progressively imitated the tone and style of fascist campaigning, while the movement's ties to the Roman Catholic Church were increasingly repudiated by the Belgian clergy.
Degrelle ran in the April 1937 Brussels by-election against Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland of the Catholic Party, who was supported — in the hope of thwarting a Rexist victory — by all other parties, including even the Communists. - Registration required for the page link The Archbishop of Mechelen and primate of the Catholic Church of Belgium, Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey, intervened, rebuking Rexist voters, insisting that even abstention from voting would be sinful, and calling Rexism "a danger to the country and to the Church". Degrelle was decisively defeated: he obtained only 20 per cent of the vote, the rest going to Van Zeeland.
Early impact of Catholicism The missionary spirit of Catholic Action attracted them because it allowed them to actively pursue societal reform and see tangible results from their efforts. However, they also understood that political involvement could only achieve meaningful, large-scale change. The story of the Rexist movement is, at its core, about the attempt to channel Catholic activism—focused on moral and religious renewal—into the political sphere in Belgium. It is also how fascism took root in the Belgian context. As Rex developed politically, it came under the influence of a rapidly spreading ideology across Europe—fascism—which appeared to offer solutions to others seeking societal transformation. Given Belgium's unique historical and geographic position and the political tensions in 1930s Europe, the form of fascism that emerged within Rex held particular significance.Newes-Adeyi, Gabriella, "The Belgian Rexist Movement Before the Second World War: Success and Failure". (1987). Honors Papers. p. 606.
Shift towards Nazism Afterwards, Rexism allied itself with the interests of Nazi Germany even more strongly and incorporated Nazi-style antisemitism into its platform.Wouters, Nico (2018). "Belgium". In Stahel, David (ed.). Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge University Press. pp. 260–287. . At the same time, its popularity declined sharply. In the 1939 national election, Rex's share of votes fell to 4.4 per cent, and the party lost 17 of its 21 seats, largely to the mainstream Catholic and Liberal parties.
Factionalism The fleeting support the movement received in 1936 came mainly from discontented, lower-middle-class French-speaking Catholics affected by the economic depression. Following 1940, a new wave of leaders and activists emerged—those who chose to align themselves with the Nazi occupiers. As the Légion grew into the most active faction within Rex, the final generation consisted primarily of alienated young people, many of whom were trying to conceal their pasts or avoid compulsory labour service in Germany, similar to the followers of Jacques Doriot studied by Paul Jankowski in Marseilles.Paxton, R. (2019, November 7). Robert Paxton · Hitler's Belgian partner. London Review of Books. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n02/robert-paxton/hitler-s-belgian-partner
Second World War
With the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Rexism welcomed German occupation, even though it had initially supported the pre-war Belgian policy of neutrality. While some former Rexists went into the underground resistance or (like José Streel) withdrew from politics after they had come to see the Nazis' anticlerical and extreme anti-Semitic policies enforced in occupied Belgium, most Rexists, however, proudly supported the occupiers and assisted German forces with the repression of the territory wherever they could. Nevertheless, the popularity of Rex continued to drop. In 1941, at a reunion in Liège, Degrelle was booed by about a hundred demonstrators.
In August 1944, a Rexist militia was responsible for the Courcelles Massacre.
Collaboration Closely affiliated with Rex was the Walloon Legion, a unit within the German Army and later the raised from French-speaking volunteers in Belgium with Rexist support after German invasion of the Soviet Union. After an initial failure to attract recruits, Degrelle volunteered for the unit as a publicity stunt and spent much of the rest of the war outside Belgium on the Eastern Front. He increasingly saw the Walloon Legion as a better vehicle for seeking German support than the Rexist Party, and recruitment drained the party of its cadres. Whilst Degrelle was absent, nominal leadership of the party passed to Victor Matthys.
The Rexists had their paramilitary wing known as the (Combat Formations), founded in 1940 and having around 4,000 members. Their members wore dark blue uniforms with the red Burgundian cross. Due to the constant depletion of its strength through members volunteering for more active forms of service in the German forces, the had, by the end of 1943, virtually ceased to function.
Walloon Legion The Walloon Legion (, "Wallonia Legion") was a unit of the German Army (Wehrmacht) and later of the Waffen-SS recruited among French-speaking collaborationists in German-occupied Belgium during World War II.