ABSTRACT
Predictably perhaps, the right and the extreme right had a tough time in the immediate post-war years. Laval had been shot, Pétain imprisoned for life and ad hoc ‘justice’ was being meted out to collaborators. However, as the next decades were to demonstrate, the far-right tradition had certainly not been extinguished. In the 1950s the Algérie Française movement and the Poujadist phenomenon were to breathe new life into the right, and in the 1980s and 1990s Jean-Marie Le Pen’s FN (Front National) was to dominate French politics – even though it only held a 10-15 per cent share of the national vote. But, in this post-war period, what kind of extreme right are we talking about? What guise did it adopt? What themes did it emphasise? What characteristics did it possess? And what kind of political ideas link Algérie Française, Poujadisme and Lepénisme?
