Rexist Party
Rex Popular Front Front populaire de Rex | |
---|---|
Colours | Red Black |
Anthem | Vers l'Avenir transl. "Towards the future" |
Party flag | |
The Rex Popular Front (
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.[12] 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 Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders. By the war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following the liberation.
Initially modelled on
Ideology
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.[5] 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. It rejected liberalism, which it deemed decadent, and was strongly opposed to both Marxism and capitalism, instead striving for a corporatist economic model, idealising rural life and traditional family values.[6]
In its early period — until around 1937 — Rexism cannot accurately be categorised as a fascist movement. Instead, it was a
The Rexist movement attracted support almost exclusively from Wallonia. On 6 October 1936, party leader
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.[18] 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
Degrelle ran in the April 1937 Brussels by-election against Prime Minister
Afterwards, Rexism allied itself with the interests of Nazi Germany even more strongly and incorporated Nazi-style antisemitism into its platform. At the same time, its popularity declined sharply.[21] 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.[21]
Second World War
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Fascism |
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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.[22] 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.[22] Nevertheless, the popularity of Rex continued to drop. In 1941, at a reunion in Liège, Degrelle was booed by about a hundred demonstrators.[22]
In August 1944, a Rexist militia was responsible for the
Collaboration
Closely affiliated with Rex was the
Formations de Combat
The Rexists had their paramilitary wing known as the Formations de Combat (lit. 'Combat Formations'), founded in 1940 and having around 4,000 members.
End of Rexism
The party had been banned from the liberation of Belgium in September 1944. With the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, many former Rexists were imprisoned or executed for their role during collaboration. Victor Matthys and José Streel were both executed by firing squad, Jean Denis (who had played only a minor role during the war) was imprisoned.
Degrelle took refuge in Francoist Spain. He was convicted of treason in absentia in Belgium and sentenced to death, but repeated requests to extradite him were turned down by the Spanish government. Stripped of his citizenship and excommunicated (later lifted in Germany), Degrelle died in Málaga in 1994.[26]
Leaders
No. | Leader (birth–death) |
Portrait | Constituency or title | Took office | Left office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Léon Degrelle (1906–1994)
|
Leader of the Rexist Party | 2 November 1935 | July 1941 | |
2 | Victor Matthys (1914–1947)
|
Leader of the Rexist Party | July 1941 | August 1944 | |
3 | Louis Collard | Leader of the Rexist Party | August 1944 | 30 March 1945 |
Election results
Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Government |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1936 | 271,481 | 11.49 (#4) | 21 / 202
|
21 | in opposition |
1939 | 83,047 | 4.25 (#6) | 4 / 202
|
17 | in opposition |
See also
References
- (PDF) from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- ^ FORMATIONS DE COMBAT.
- ISBN 978-0-299-09804-9.
- ^
ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
... fascist Italy ... developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe,
- ^ JSTOR 2095733.
- ^ a b c Griffin, Roger (1991). The Nature of Fascism. Pinter. p. 132.
- ISBN 9781316510346.
- ^ Capoccia, Giovanni (2005). Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 114.
- ^ "Tournant des élections de 1936".
- ^ Cook, Bernard A. (2005). Belgium: A History (3rd ed.). Peter Lang. p. 118.
- ^ The rexist movement in Belgium, PhD thesis Martin Conway, 1989, University of Oxford
- ^ ISBN 978-3-03911-904-2; pp. 175–176
- ISBN 9789033480393.
- ^ Étienne, Jean-Michel (1968). Le mouvement Rexiste jusqu'en 1940. Armand Colin.
- ^ Griffin, Roger (1991). The Nature of Fascism. Pinter. pp. 132–133.
- ISBN 9789033480393.
- ^ Capoccia, Giovanni (2005). Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 114.
- ^ De Wever, Bruno (2006). "Belgium". World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 86.
- ISBN 9781400040940. - Registration required for the page link
- ISBN 978-3-03911-904-2; pp. 174–175.
- ^ ISBN 2874155195.
- ^ ISBN 2874155195.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-507-05430-4.
- ^ "Formations de Combat". www.belgiumwwii.be (in Dutch).
- ISBN 978-0912138220.
- ISBN 978-0313338908.
Bibliography
- Conway, Martin. Collaboration in Belgium: Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement 1940–1944. ISBN 0-300-05500-5
- de Bruyne, Eddy; Rikmenspoel, Marc (2004). For Rex and For Belgium: Leon Degrelle and Walloon Political & Military Collaboration 1940–45. Helion. ISBN 1-874622-32-9.
- De Wever, Bruno (2007). "Catholicism and Fascism in Belgium". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 8 (2): 343–352. S2CID 219628646.
- Littlejohn, David. ISBN 0-434-42725-X
- Streel, José. La révolution du XXème siècle (réédition du livre paru en 1942 à la NSE à Bruxelles), préface de Lionel Baland, Déterna, Paris, 2010.
- Colignon, Alain (2001). "DEGRELLE, Léon" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- David Stahel, Joining Hitler's Crusade Chapter 10 Belgium, Cambridge University Press, 15 December 2017
Further reading
Media related to Rexist Party at Wikimedia Commons