Eurodroite Explained

Euroright
Colorcode:black
Abbreviation:Ed
President:Giorgio Almirante
Founder:Giorgio Almirante
Founded:19 April 1978
Dissolved:24 July 1984
Successor:Group of the European Right (political group)
Position:Far-right
Europarl:Non-Inscrits
Seats1 Title:1st European Parliament

Eurodroite (in French œɾɔdɾwatə/; English: Euroright) was an alliance of far-right political parties in Europe that took part in the 1979 European Parliament election. It did not operate as a political party or a group in the European Parliament because it only had 4 seats, all held by the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. The Group of the European Right became its formal successor following the 1984 European Parliament election.

History

Giorgio Almirante, the president of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), envisioned to create an alliance of far-right political parties from Europe.[1] [2] Almirante said that the objective of the alliance would be to "prevent the European Parliament shifting to the left" and that it would be strongly anti-communist. At the founding congress of Eurodroite on 19 April 1978, Almirante's MSI was also joined by the French Party of New Forces (PFN) of Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour and New Force (FN) of Blas Piñar.[3]

Shortly before the formation of Eurodroite, Tixier-Vignancour was supposed to be a candidate of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. Another meeting of the Eurodroite was held on 27 June in Paris, with about two thousand participants, according to the Le Monde diplomatique newspaper.[4] Left-wing organisations held a counter-protest to the meeting in Paris. Le Pen was critical of the Eurodroite project because of the participation of PFN.

In the 1979 European Parliament election, MSI was the only party from the Eurodroite that crossed the threshold, obtaining four seats. It was thus unable to form a group in the European Parliament.[5]

The Eurodroite alliance was succeeded in 1984, when the Group of the European Right was officially formed.[6] FN and the National Political Union (EPEN) of former military dictator Georgios Papadopoulos were members of this new group, while PFN was replaced by Le Pen's National Front.

Ideology

The Eurodroite was a far-right alliance composed of neo-fascist parties.[7] It opposed the rise of Eurocommunism.[8]

Members

The following parties were members of the Eurodroite alliance. The FN and EPEN did not contest the 1979 election, as Spain and Greece were not yet member states of the European Union.[9]

CountryNameIdeologyMEPs
ItalyItalian Social MovementMSINeo-fascism
Italian nationalism
FranceParty of New ForcesPFNNeo-fascism
Anti-communism
BelgiumParty of New ForcesPFNNeo-fascism
Neo-Nazism
GreeceNational Political UnionEPENMetaxism
Greek nationalism
Not in the EU
SpainNew ForceFNNeo-fascism
Francoism
Not in the EU

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Aux origines du RN (4) – Rivalité entre fascistes : l'épisode du Parti des forces nouvelles (PFN) . 2024-06-13 . www.contretemps.eu.
  2. January 1978 . A euro-right with Spanish and French support . Patterns of Prejudice . en . 12 . 3 . 9–10 . 10.1080/0031322X.1978.9969439 . 0031-322X.
  3. Magliaro . Massimo . 2017 . The Italian Social Movement . Cahiers d'histoire du nationalisme . 11 . 149–150, 157 . 2493-6715.
  4. Web site: Julien . Claude . 1978-07-01 . Nostalgies et fascisme . 2024-06-13 . Le Monde diplomatique . fr.
  5. Book: Shields, James . The extreme right in France: from Pétain to Le Pen . Routledge . 2007 . 978-0-415-37200-8 . 182.
  6. Igounet . Valérie . Picco . Pauline . 2016 . Histoire du logo de deux "partis frères" entre France et Italie (1972-2016) . Histoire@Politique . 6–9.
  7. Web site: Albertini . Dominique . Front national : le plus europhile des partis europhobes . 2024-06-13 . Libération . fr.
  8. News: 17 February 1978 . Almirante: "Ante el eurocomunismo, nosotros somos la euroderecha" . 20 January 2024 . El País . es . 1134-6582.
  9. News: 1979-03-01 . Me Tixier-Vignancour conduira la liste de l'Eurodroite . 2024-06-13 . Le Monde.fr . fr.