Mouvement Franciste

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Francist Movement Mouvement franciste
President	Marcel Bucard
Founded	1933; 91 years ago (1933)
Banned	1944; 80 years ago (1944)
Preceded by	Le Faisceau[1]
Headquarters	Vichy, France
Newspaper	Le Francisme
Paramilitary wing	Blueshirts
Membership	10,000 (1933 est.)
Ideology	Francism French nationalism Antisemitism Fascist corporatism
Political position	Far-right
Colours	Blue   Red   Gold
Party flag
Politics of France Political parties Elections

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.