ABSTRACT
No one, of course, denies that the Croix de Feu was by far the most dynamic and important formation on the French Right in the 1930s. Founded as a modest and largely apolitical veterans' organization in 1928, it became, under the post-1931 leadership of Colonel de la Rocque, a far larger and overtly political movement. Right-wing leagues abounded in the 1930s; what made the Croix de Feu stand out was its much greater size. It grew dramatically in the wake of the antiparliamentary riots of February 6, 1934 and had nearly a half million members on the eve of its dissolution. In 1936 the Croix de Feu, like all the other right-wing leagues, was dissolved by the victorious Popular Front government. In response, the Croix de Feu transformed itself into the Parti Social Français, which, by virtue of being formally a political party rather than a league, was immune from the legislation.
