National Republican Movement
Encyclopedia
The National Republican Movement (Mouvement National Républicain or MNR) is a French
nationalist
political party
, created by Bruno Mégret
with former Club de l'Horloge
alumni, Yvan Blot
(also a member of GRECE) and Jean-Yves Le Gallou
, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen
's National Front on January 24, 1999.
Although political observers have considered the MNR to be a far-right party, the MNR presents itself as classical liberal and nationalist. It opposes immigration, Islamisation
, and the European Union
, but, unlike the National Front, supports free market
s and neoliberalism
.
Mégret has tried in the past to distance himself from Le Pen's provocative statements, in particular concerning Holocaust denial
. In 2001, a call for reconciliation between the two parties was endorsed by Roland Gaucher
. Pierre Vial left the MNR in October 2001, Bruno Mégret having expressed solidarity with the US after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
, Pierre Vial, Jean-Claude Bardet, Xavier Guillemot, Christian Bouchet
and Maxime Brunerie
. In 2000, the party had less than 5000 members, while its youth movement, the Movement National de la Jeunesse, headed by Philippe Schleiter, nephew of Robert Faurisson
, had 1500 members. The student union Renouveau Etudiant had close ties with the MNR thanks to Pierre Vial. The party was initially known as the Front National-Mouvement National, but was forced to change its name to Mouvement National Républicain on October 2, 1999 after being sued by Le Pen for trademark infringement.
In 2000, via the organisation Promouvoir, the MNR sued successfully for the ban of the film Baise-moi
to minors. During the 2004 campaign for the regional elections
, the MNR campaigned under the "No to Islamization
" slogan. In 2005, it campaigned against the proposed European Constitution and the possible integration of Turkey
in the European Union; Bruno Mégret said that the Europeans, including France, were lying to the Turks by having them believe they could integrate within the EU, whereas public opinion would surely reject Turkey's membership in a referendum
. As a result of MNR's low electoral results, Franck Timmermans and a few other former MNR members formed a new party in 2005, called the Parti populiste
(Populist Party, PP) which tends to get closer of original Front national (Timmermans will later join Front national's cantonal campaign by representing it in Saint-Nazaire, as other candidates in Northern France on March 2008).
As the Front national organized its traditional May 1 rally in Paris, to honor the memory of Joan of Arc
, his president Jean-Marie Le Pen explicitly called to an union of all patriots, in the context of the near to come French presidential election of 2007. MNR, via Bruno Mégret, asked positively to this proposition, as the scissionists of the Parti populiste. The Union des patriotes (Patriots union) get official on December 20, 2006 by a symbolic reconciliation in Le Pen Montretout's castle in Saint-Cloud, where both Le Pen and Mégret presented the initiative to the press ; gathered with their respective wives. The basic project was, for the MNR, to give a support of some 140 signatures of great electors to Jean-Marie Le Pen's presidential candidature - he needs 500. Finally MNR only succeeded to give 45.
Front national and Mouvement national républicain made parallel campaigns with their respective militants for Jean-Marie Le Pen's candidature, excepted for a major Front national's rally in Lyon on March 11, 2007 where Mégret made an apparition within the guest (however, he didn't speak at the tribune). As a result, Mégret regularly criticizes this situation, like during interventions en French television channels LCI and I>télé, where he exposes what he thinks to be Louis Aliot's (Front national general secretary), and, mostly Marine Le Pen's strategy to minimize the contribution and the efficiency of the Union des patriotes.
On March 6, 2008, Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed that the MNR was funded illegally by the UIMM, the steel industry branch of the Medef. Bruno Mégret denied these accusations, and counter-claimed that it was foolish for Jean Marie Le Pen to make such claims, as he has been already alleged to be funded by Saddam Hussein
and the Unification Church
of Sun Myung Moon
. In an interview to France 2
on the same day, Le Pen precised that he had not claimed Bruno Mégret was personally receiving funds from UIMM.
Later in 2008, Bruno Mégret stepped down from party leadership and retired from political life. It is unknown whether his party will survive his departure.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
, created by Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret is a French Far-right politician. He is the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from political action.-Youth and studies:...
with former Club de l'Horloge
Club de l'Horloge
The Club de l'Horloge is a French far-right association founded in 1974. Close to the Nouvelle Droite movement, the club centers itself around the values of "liberalism, nationalism and democracy." Its president is Henry de Lesquen.-History:The Club de l'Horloge was founded by far-right members...
alumni, Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot
Yvan Blot is a French [conservative] political figure who has been a member of GRECE as well as the founder and president of the Club de l'Horloge....
(also a member of GRECE) and Jean-Yves Le Gallou
Jean-Yves Le Gallou
Jean-Yves Le Gallou is a leading French far right politician, member of the European Parliament since the 1994 election.- Career :...
, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front on January 24, 1999.
Although political observers have considered the MNR to be a far-right party, the MNR presents itself as classical liberal and nationalist. It opposes immigration, Islamisation
Islamization
Islamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
, and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, but, unlike the National Front, supports free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
s and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
.
Mégret has tried in the past to distance himself from Le Pen's provocative statements, in particular concerning Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. In 2001, a call for reconciliation between the two parties was endorsed by Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher
Roland Gaucher was the pseudonym of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right journalist and politician. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in Marcel Déat's fascist party Rassemblement National Populaire under the Vichy regime...
. Pierre Vial left the MNR in October 2001, Bruno Mégret having expressed solidarity with the US after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
History
Initially, Bruno Mégret was the chairman, with Serge Martinez vice-chairman, Jean-Yves Le Gallou, executive director and Franck Timmermans secretary-general. Other notable members of the party included Jean HaudryJean Haudry
Jean Haudry is a linguist, and a founder of the Institut d'études indo-européennes at the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 with Jean-Paul Allard and Jean Varenne. Under his leadership the Institut published, between 1982 and 1998, the Études indo-européennes...
, Pierre Vial, Jean-Claude Bardet, Xavier Guillemot, Christian Bouchet
Christian Bouchet
Christian Bouchet is a French far right journalist and politician. An exponent of the Third Position, with sympathies to National Bolshevism....
and Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie is a man who attempted to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002 in Paris, during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées....
. In 2000, the party had less than 5000 members, while its youth movement, the Movement National de la Jeunesse, headed by Philippe Schleiter, nephew of Robert Faurisson
Robert Faurisson
Robert Faurisson is a French academic who is a Holocaust denier. Faurisson generated much controversy with a number of articles, published in the Journal of Historical Review and elsewhere, as well as various letters he has sent to French newspapers , which deny various aspects of the Holocaust,...
, had 1500 members. The student union Renouveau Etudiant had close ties with the MNR thanks to Pierre Vial. The party was initially known as the Front National-Mouvement National, but was forced to change its name to Mouvement National Républicain on October 2, 1999 after being sued by Le Pen for trademark infringement.
In 2000, via the organisation Promouvoir, the MNR sued successfully for the ban of the film Baise-moi
Baise-moi
Baise-moi is a French film co-directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, released in 2000. It is based on the novel by Despentes, first published in 1999. The film received intense media coverage because of its graphic mix of violence and explicit sex scenes...
to minors. During the 2004 campaign for the regional elections
French regional elections, 2004
Regional elections in were held in France on 21 and 28 March 2004. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 regions which, although they do not have legislative powers, manage sizeable budgets...
, the MNR campaigned under the "No to Islamization
Islamization
Islamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
" slogan. In 2005, it campaigned against the proposed European Constitution and the possible integration of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in the European Union; Bruno Mégret said that the Europeans, including France, were lying to the Turks by having them believe they could integrate within the EU, whereas public opinion would surely reject Turkey's membership in a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. As a result of MNR's low electoral results, Franck Timmermans and a few other former MNR members formed a new party in 2005, called the Parti populiste
Parti populiste
The Populist Party is a minor nationalist political party in France. It was established in 2005 by Franck Timmermans and Christian Perez, former members of Bruno Mégret's National Republican Movement, which split from the larger National Front in 1998....
(Populist Party, PP) which tends to get closer of original Front national (Timmermans will later join Front national's cantonal campaign by representing it in Saint-Nazaire, as other candidates in Northern France on March 2008).
As the Front national organized its traditional May 1 rally in Paris, to honor the memory of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, his president Jean-Marie Le Pen explicitly called to an union of all patriots, in the context of the near to come French presidential election of 2007. MNR, via Bruno Mégret, asked positively to this proposition, as the scissionists of the Parti populiste. The Union des patriotes (Patriots union) get official on December 20, 2006 by a symbolic reconciliation in Le Pen Montretout's castle in Saint-Cloud, where both Le Pen and Mégret presented the initiative to the press ; gathered with their respective wives. The basic project was, for the MNR, to give a support of some 140 signatures of great electors to Jean-Marie Le Pen's presidential candidature - he needs 500. Finally MNR only succeeded to give 45.
Front national and Mouvement national républicain made parallel campaigns with their respective militants for Jean-Marie Le Pen's candidature, excepted for a major Front national's rally in Lyon on March 11, 2007 where Mégret made an apparition within the guest (however, he didn't speak at the tribune). As a result, Mégret regularly criticizes this situation, like during interventions en French television channels LCI and I>télé, where he exposes what he thinks to be Louis Aliot's (Front national general secretary), and, mostly Marine Le Pen's strategy to minimize the contribution and the efficiency of the Union des patriotes.
On March 6, 2008, Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed that the MNR was funded illegally by the UIMM, the steel industry branch of the Medef. Bruno Mégret denied these accusations, and counter-claimed that it was foolish for Jean Marie Le Pen to make such claims, as he has been already alleged to be funded by Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
of Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
. In an interview to France 2
France 2
France 2 is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô...
on the same day, Le Pen precised that he had not claimed Bruno Mégret was personally receiving funds from UIMM.
Later in 2008, Bruno Mégret stepped down from party leadership and retired from political life. It is unknown whether his party will survive his departure.
Electoral results
- 1999 European Parliament electionEuropean Parliament election, 1999The European Parliament Election, 1999 was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory and where...
: Bruno Mégret's list gets 578,774 votes (03.28%) but fails to win seats in the EU Parliament.European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world... - 2002 French presidential electionFrench presidential election, 2002The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
: Bruno Mégret wins 2.33% of the popular vote. - 2002 French legislative electionsFrench legislative election, 2002-12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
: the MNR run 572 candidates across France getting 276,376 votes and 1.09% of the popular vote. No MNR candidate will be elected during this election. - 2004 regional electionsFrench regional elections, 2004Regional elections in were held in France on 21 and 28 March 2004. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 regions which, although they do not have legislative powers, manage sizeable budgets...
: the MNR runs candidates in 13 of the 22 metropolitan Regions of FranceRégions of FranceFrance is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...
. The best result obtained by the party is Alain Vauzelle's 2.95% in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurProvence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur or PACA is one of the 27 regions of France.It is made up of:* the former French province of Provence* the former papal territory of Avignon, known as Comtat Venaissin...
. - 2004 European Parliament electionEuropean Parliament election, 2004Elections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom...
: the MNR gets low results with an average of 0.31%. - 2007 French Presidential electionFrench presidential election, 2007The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
: Bruno Mégret and the MNR support the National Front (FN) candidate, Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
. - 2007 French legislative electionsFrench legislative election, 2007The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions...
: Bruno Mégret calls for a "patriotic alliance" grouping all the far-right parties. Nevertheless, neither the FN nor the Movement for FranceMovement for FranceThe Movement for France , abbreviated to MPF, is a French conservative and eurosceptic political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.The party is considered...
(MPF) will positively respond to his idea. Finally, the MNR ran 379 candidates across France and, in the areas without any MNR candidate, the party supported FN candidates such as Bruno GollnischBruno GollnischBruno Gollnisch is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front far-right party, and a member of the European Parliament. He was chairman of the European Parliamentary group 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' in 2007, which was dissolved in November 2007 following the...
, in LyonLyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
's eastern suburbs. The MNR candidates, who ran under the slogan Against Immigration, Islamization and Insecurity, only gathered 00.39% of the popular vote and were all eliminated. Mégret himself was in competition against a Front national's candidate in the 12th circonscription of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Vitrolles-Marignane), Gérald Gerin, Jean-Marie Le Pen's own majordome : Mégret gathering 02.25% of the vote and Gerin 07.50%.