French Social Party
프랑스 사회당 (1936)
A conservative, nationalist right-wing French party founded in July 1936 by Lieutenant-Colonel François de La Rocque after the dissolution of his Croix-de-Feu. Defending a Christian, conservative and patriotic ideology and running social mutual-aid organisations, it was the first mass party of the French right, with 800,000 members in 1937 and about 1.2 million in 1939. Renamed Progrès social français after the 1940 defeat, it survived through its networks but was not reconstituted after the Liberation.
In depth
In June 1936 the Popular Front government dissolved the Croix-de-Feu along with the other far-right leagues, and its leader La Rocque founded the French Social Party on 6 July 1936. Its constituent assembly was held on 12 July at the Salle Wagram, attended by the aviator Jean Mermoz and Jean Ybarnégaray. Its motto “Travail, Famille, Patrie” was later taken over by Vichy. Proposals such as a stronger government and the representation of professions led the left to see the party, despite its legalist claims, as a threat to the parliamentary Republic and an embodiment of the fascist danger.
The party was highly successful from 1936 to 1940, with 800,000 members in 1937 and nearly 1.2 million in 1939; in July 1939 it claimed 8 deputies, 185 general councillors, 322 district councillors and 2,819 mayors. In June 1937 La Rocque refused to join Jacques Doriot’s anti-Marxist Front de la liberté, and he denounced the illegal initiatives of the Cagoule. At the end of the 1930s the party drew closer to the Radicals and on 12 April 1938 voted confidence in Édouard Daladier’s government.
The defeat of 1940 denied the party the chance to turn its mass strength into electoral results. Renamed Progrès social français when party activity was suspended, it survived through its social and civic organisations and personal ties between members. It is described as personally loyal to Marshal Pétain and critically approving the National Revolution while refusing antisemitism and collaboration; La Rocque forbade members to join the Service d’ordre légionnaire, the Milice or the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism, and some members joined the Resistance. La Rocque himself was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and deported to Germany.
After the Liberation La Rocque tried without much success to reconstitute the party as the Republican and Social Party of French Reconciliation, which joined the Rassemblement des gauches républicaines before disappearing. The party’s ideological legacy is seen in the MRP and the RPF of the Fourth Republic.