The Extreme Right in France: From PTtain to Le Pen

A comprehensive new historical study of the extreme right in France, from the Vichy regime to the present day. The Front National is France's third largest party and the most significant extreme-right force in Europe; its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, contested the second round of the 2002 presidential election with 5.5 million votes. This book examines this resurgence of French right-wing extremism from a historical perspective, tracing the political lineage of Le Pen and the FN through key figures and movements on the French extreme right since 1940. Part 1 devotes chapters to the Vichy regime, the aftermath of the Occupation, the Poujadist movement, the Algerian War and extreme-right ideology and activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Part 2 analyzes the electoral rise of the FN, its evolving programme and exploitation of salient issues, the geography and sociology of its vote and its impact on political culture in contemporary France. The FN, it is argued, represents boththe latest manifestation of a long tradition of right-wing radicalism and a complex new phenomenon within the changing social and political dynamics of France today. This is an essential text for all readers with an interest in the future of European politics.

J. G. Shields is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Warwick.