The French National-Collectivist Party (, PFNC), originally known as the French National Communist Party (Parti français national communiste), was a minor political group active in the French Third Republic and reestablished in occupied France. In both incarnations, its leader was the sports journalist Pierre Clémenti. It espoused a "national communist" platform noted for its similarities with fascism, and popularized racial antisemitism. The group was also noted for its agitation in support of pan-European nationalism and rattachism, maintaining contacts in both Nazi Germany and Wallonia.
Always a minor movement within the French far-right, it was initially a dissident wing of Henry Coston's Francistes. Temporarily re-absorbed by that party in 1934, it reemerged following Coston's personal row with Clémenti. Its activity was interrupted in 1936, though it returned to incite industrial workers against the Popular Front government. Clémenti was the subject of interrogations during the clampdown on La Cagoule, and briefly jailed in early 1939 for spreading racial hatred. Again imprisoned during the Phony War, he fought against Germany in the Battle of France, but immediately after offered to collaborate with the occupiers. The PFNC was allowed to recruit and organize, but had to drop all references to national communism, including in its name.
Although minor, the PFNC had a combative stance on the pluralist scene of French fascism and collaboration. Strongly opposed to the French Popular Party, it had a working relationship with the National Popular Rally. Its rattachist campaigns also made it an adversary of the Rexist Party in occupied Belgium. With several other French parties, the PFNC helped organize the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism, which fought on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. This activity consumed Clémenti, leaving his party in disarray. The PFNC absorbed Robert Hersant's Jeune Front, but thereafter was exposed to power struggles between Hersant and other party militants, involving the German authorities as arbiters.
Centered on Lyon after 1941, the PFNC was only formally active during the Liberation of Paris, when it was officially proscribed. Facing a death penalty, Clémenti evaded capture for several years, and was eventually pardoned. He attempted to infuse his ideas into the European Freedom Union, which he briefly led in the late 1960s. The ideological legacy was also embraced by the newspaper Socialisme Européen, put out by Clémenti's godson Pierre Vial.
History Origins The National Communist Party was one of the groups emerging from the political crisis of February 6, 1934: its first reported gathering was on February 7 at Place de la Concorde,Joly, p. 122 although some sources see its foundation date as April 7, 1934.Leclercq, p. 26. See also Gordon et al., p. 276 Its creator was the young Corsican Clémenti, at the time still a sports columnist for the Radical-Party press.Horváth, p. 52. See also Gordon et al., p. 276; Neulen, p. 403 His involvement with militant French nationalism had already been attested by that moment: in 1932, Clémenti sat on the leadership board of the National League of French Youth, established by Jean Conart. Emmanuel Debono, "Les années 1930 en France: le temps d'une radicalisation antisémite", in Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah, Issue 198, 2013 In August 1933, he assisted Henry Coston in creating the Francistes party (itself a dissidence of the Mouvement Franciste).Joly, p. 120 Coston and his followers advocated racial supremacism for those of "French blood" and maintained ample contacts with the Nazi Party, which were facilitated by Georges de Pottere. As seen by journalist René Dunan, Coston was the PFNC's true founder.René Dunan, "Les menées nazies en France. Clémenti, propagandiste de l'antisémitisme hitlérien est arrêté", in Ce Soir, July 30, 1939, p. 3
A contemporary piece in Regards had it that the PFNC was one of the vehicles for "French fascism", alongside Solidarité Française and Croix-de-Feu, and, like these, only existed because of the February crisis. "Numerically insignificant", Clémenti's organization was seen by Regards as copying the Nazis."Les liaisons souterraines du fascisme français", in Regards, Vol. 3, Issue 15, April 1934, pp. 8–9 Historian Hans Werner Neulen argues that, "despite its name", the new group was modeled on Falangism and Italian fascism.Neulen, p. 403 According to scholar Miklós Horváth, the PFNC "was a near-perfect 'anti-party', in that it was almost entirely defined by its opposition to other persons or ideologies"; it was antisemitic, anti-Masonic, anti-capitalist, and anti-communist.Horváth, p. 53 The PFNC platform included what Clémenti called a "heroic concept of social life", with references to social justice and with a role reserved for trade unions, but all within a totalitarian state; the PFNC advocated dirigisme and economic nationalism, promising to clamp down on capital flight. In his notes on the subject, Clémenti suggested that a "state protective of man's labor" was his social and economic ideal, arguing that the Great Depression could be tackled once "the worker and the owner [are united] against their common enemy: the capitalist." He viewed this project as capable of uprooting both Marxism and economic liberalism.Beau de Loménie & Hardy, pp. 491–493 He announced that his mission was to "regenerate the better elements of the working class."Beau de Loménie & Hardy, p. 489
Dunan made mention of the "totalitarian methods" proposed by Clémenti, viewing them as a derivative of Nazism. Regards highlighted anti-communism as the leading component of all "French fascist" ideology, viewing all federated groups as united by an invisible thread and a shared belief in the "red peril". Contrarily, researcher Jacques Leclercq sees the PFNC as distinguished by its racial antisemitism, which took "one of the most violent" forms.Leclercq, p. 26 The final point in the PFNC platform was a promise to expel French Jews and other "foreigners". Clémenti's nationalism also manifested itself as rattachism: the partition of Belgium along ethnic borders and the creation of la plus grande France ("Greater France").Lanneau, pp. 180–181. See also Hasquin, p. 68 Beginning in 1934, he had direct contacts in the right wing of the Walloon Movement, including Jules Mahieu and Juste Wasterlain.Lanneau, pp. 179–181 The Sûreté suspected that his friends in Wallonia also included arms traffickers, as the PFNC had reportedly tried to arm itself with automatic rifles purchased in Liège in 1934.Lanneau, p. 181
The PFNC organ was Le Pays Libre! ("The Free Country!"), with its editorial offices in Paris, at Champs-Élysées, 28."La croisade anti-communiste. Un appel du Parti français national collectiviste", in L'Ouest Éclair, July 9, 1941, p. 2 It "distinguished itself with violent attacks on both the Muscovite [communist] ideal and the grand capitalist oligarchies.""Nos commentaires de Vichy", in Feuille d'Avis de Neuchatel et du Vignoble Neuchâtelois, July 9, 1941, p. 1 The party logo showed four converging arrowheads over a diamond and a circle, with the French national colors.Littlejohn, pp. 125–126 Originally, it viewed itself as a youth organization, participating in the "Estates General of Youth" clubs alongside the Jeunesses Patriotes, the Ligue d'Action Universitaire Républicaine et Socialiste, and the Libre République des Jeunes."Les États généraux de la jeunesse", in La Croix, June 27, 1934, p. 5; "Les États généraux de la jeunesse et la Jeunesse communiste", in L'Humanité, June 30, 1934, p. 4 The PFNC organization eventually formed a youth paramilitary force known as "French Guards" (Gardes Françaises).
Conflicts and repression Scholar Dietrich Orlow notes that the PFNC was viewed as a potential ally by some agents of Nazi Germany, though even these observers "saw little future for [its] influence".Dietrich Orlow, The Lure of Fascism in Western Europe. German Nazis, Dutch and French Fascists, 1933–1939, p. 65. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Dunan recounts that Clémenti was a frequent guest at Nazi Party rallies, and had befriended its chief propagandist, Julius Streicher. In July–August 1934, the PFNC was effectively absorbed by Coston's movement; Clémenti took over as the Francistes president.Joly, pp. 120–123 The entire movement fell apart once Clémenti seduced Coston's estranged wife,Joly, p. 123 meaning that the National Communists were again an independent group. In this early period, the reestablished party could only field the minimum number required for registration, leading the group to dissolve itself in 1936. Le Pays Libre! was also closed down a year later.
Some evidence suggest that during late 1936 and early 1937 the PFNC remained active in opposition to the Popular Front government, which it identified as a "Jewish" cartel.Eugène Morel, "Ripostes. Des jolis cocos", in Le Peuple. Organe Quotidien du Syndicalisme, August 4, 1937, p. 1 Peak agitation in support of rattachism was reached by the party in October 1936, with Clémenti openly calling for a military attack on Belgium. His article, published in support of the Walloon fascist Léon Degrelle (deemed a persona non grata on French territory), was described by French authorities as a tense moment in Belgium–France relations.Lanneau, pp. 180–181 The party was especially critical of the pro-government trade union federation, or General Confederation of Labor, inciting workers to rebel against it. However, the PFNC also had a consuming rivalry with Jacques Doriot's far-right organization, called French Popular Party (PPF). Clémenti described Doriot as an agent of the Jews and a covert, unrepentant Marxist.
The PFNC was again registered in June 1937, when Clémenti went on record with the claim that it was neither fascist nor anti-fascist. He argued that anti-fascism meant either an ill-advised attack on the Italian government, thus setting France on a collision course with a "friendly nation"; or an attack on "generic ideas", which Clémenti identified as shared by both Italian fascists and the French Communist Party.Raymond Millet, "Une nouvelle extrême gauche va-t-elle se former?", in Le Temps, June 15, 1937, p. 8 In September 1937, following bombing attacks by members of La Cagoule, he was interrogated by police. Clémenti stated his sympathy for the group, while criticizing its methods; he also argued that the attacks were in fact staged by a Trotskyist cell of Simca employees."Au 6me jour de l'enquête. M. Pierre Clémenti , président du Parti français national communiste, est interrogé", in Le Petit Journal, September 18, 1937, p. 4 During the far-right rally of February 1938, the PFNC deposed a wreath commemorating its "precursors, the martyrs of February 6, 1934"."La quatriéme anniversaire du 6 février 1934", in Le Temps, February 7, 1938, p. 5