Solidarité Française was a French

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...

 far right league founded in 1933 by perfume manufacturer François Coty

François Coty

François Coty was a French perfume manufacturer, newspaper publisher, and founder of the fascist league Solidarité Française...

 and commanded by Major

Major

Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

 Jean Renaud

Jean Renaud

Jean Renaud is first noted in Canadian history in 1768 when he married at Quebec City. He owned property and was a merchant...

, they dressed in blue shirts, black berets, and jackboots, and shouted the slogan "France for the French". While Marcel Bucard

Marcel Bucard

Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...

's Francisme imitated Italian fascism

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

, Solidarité française imitated the Nazi party.

Coty, former owner of Le Figaro

Le Figaro

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...

, the sponsor of a newspaper which styled itself L'Ami du peuple

L'Ami du peuple

L'Ami du peuple was a newspaper written by Jean-Paul Marat during the French Revolution. “The most celebrated radical paper of the Revolution”, according to historian Jeremy D...

after Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...

's (being nonetheless anti-republican), called himself the French Duce

Duce

Duce is an Italian title, derived from the Latin word dux, and cognate with duke. National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini was identified by Fascists as Il Duce of the movement and became a reference to the dictator position of Head of Government and Duce of Fascism of Italy was established...

. He had financed the syndicalist

Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

 proto-fascist Georges Valois

Georges Valois

Georges Valois was a French journalist and politician.-Life and career:Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898. In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist...

 and his Faisceau

Faisceau

Le Faisceau was a short-lived French Fascist political party. It was founded on November 11, 1925 as a far right league by Georges Valois. It was preceded by its newspaper, Le Nouveau Siècle - founded as a weekly on February 26, it became a daily after the party's creation.-Creation:Contributors...

in the 1920s, the Croix-de-Feu

Croix-de-Feu

Croix-de-Feu was a French far right league of the Interwar period, led by Colonel François de la Rocque . After it was dissolved, as were all other far right leagues during the Popular Front period , de la Rocque replaced it with the Parti social français .- Beginnings :The Croix-de-Feu were...

 in the early 1930s, finally deciding to form his own faction.

The movement claimed a strength of 180,000 in 1934, with 80,000 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

; the Parisian police thought the number in Paris closer to 15,000. The small membership did not however isolate Coty's group: the Solidarité Française found itself integrated in the loose coalition of far right

Far right

Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 movements such as Action Française

Action Française

The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...

 and Pierre Taittinger

Pierre Taittinger

Pierre-Charles Taittinger was founder of the famous Taittinger champagne house and chairman of the municipal council of Paris in 1943–1944 during the German occupation of France, in which position he played a role during the Liberation of Paris.-Personal life:Born in Paris, Pierre...

's Jeunesse Patriotes. In this context, Coty's financing found its importance, as L'Ami du peuple had a fairly large circulation.

The group gained notoriety during the rally during the 6 February 1934 crisis

6 February 1934 crisis

The 6 February 1934 crisis refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organized by far-right leagues that culminated in a riot on the Place de la Concorde, near the seat of the French National Assembly...

, in front of the Parliament seat in the Palais Bourbon

Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon, , a palace located on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde, Paris , is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government.-History:...

. It was dissolved by a law adopted by the Popular Front

Popular Front (France)

The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...

 government of Léon Blum

Léon Blum

André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...

 in June 1936. Many members of Solidarité Française subsequently joined Jacques Doriot

Jacques Doriot

Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...

's fascist Parti Populaire Francais

Parti Populaire Français

The Parti Populaire Français was a fascist political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during World War II...

(PPF).