Les Horaces (National Rally)

Last updated

Les Horaces refers to a political circle who have played a leading role in shaping the policies of the far-right National Rally in France since the mid-2010s. [1] [2]

Contents

Activities

The circle was founded in 2015. [3] Since then, the circle has prepared monthly briefings for National Rally leader Marine Le Pen. [4] The circle aims to recruit senior civil servants and businessmen to the National Rally, to generate ideas for party policy, and to prepare the party for government. [5]

Members

The circle's membership is kept secret, but is considered to be led by member of the European Parliament André Rougé. [4] In 2016, Jean Messiha was named a spokesperson for the circle. [6]

A 2018 investigation by BuzzFeed News and Mediapart claimed that former Cour des Comptes and far-right think tank Carrefour de l'Horloge member Philippe Baccou as well as banker and Confédération des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises member Georges Tissié were members of the circle. [7] In 2024, Libération published an investigation claiming to undercover other members of the circle. [8] Radio France Internationale has named Jean-Paul Garraud as a member of the circle, principally working on judicial questions. [9]

Reception

Paul Quinio of Libération has described the circle as "a central piece of the far-right's strategy of dédiabolisation." [10] Historian Andrew Hussey has described the circle as being largely composed of Énarques, making it an "elite project that is ironically – or cynically, depending on how you look at it – driving Le Pen’s anti-elitist agenda." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Marie Le Pen</span> French politician (born 1928)

Jean Louis Marie Le Pen, known as Jean-Marie Le Pen, is a French far-right politician who served as president of the National Front from 1972 to 2011 and Honorary President of the same party from 2011 to 2015.

The National Rally, known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018, is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist. It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022. Its candidate was defeated in the second round in the 2002, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. It opposes immigration, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration, protection of French identity, and stricter control of illegal immigration. The party advocates a "more balanced" and "independent" French foreign policy, opposing French military intervention in Africa while supporting France leaving NATO's integrated command. It also supports reform of the European Union (EU) and its related organisations as well as economic interventionism, protectionism, and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Dupont-Aignan</span> French politician (born 1961)

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as president of the minor party Debout la France. He was its only member in the National Assembly, having been elected for Essonne's 8th constituency beginning in 1997; he was previously mayor of Yerres from 1995 to 2017.

The far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic with Boulangism and the Dreyfus affair. In the 1880s, General Georges Boulanger, called "General Revenge", championed demands for military revenge against Imperial Germany as retribution for the defeat and fall of the Second French Empire during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). This stance, known as revanchism, began to exert a strong influence on French nationalism. Soon thereafter, the Dreyfus affair provided one of the political division lines of France. French nationalism, which had been largely associated with left-wing and Republican ideologies before the Dreyfus affair, turned after that into a main trait of the right-wing and, moreover, of the far right. A new right emerged, and nationalism was reappropriated by the far-right who turned it into a form of ethnic nationalism, blended with anti-Semitism, xenophobia, anti-Protestantism and anti-Masonry. The Action française (AF), first founded as a journal and later a political organization, was the matrix of a new type of counter-revolutionary right-wing, which continues to exist today. During the interwar period, the Action française and its youth militia, the Camelots du Roi, were very active. Far right leagues organized riots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Éric Ciotti</span> French politician (born 1965)

Éric Ciotti is a French politician who led The Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has represented the 1st constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the National Assembly since the 2007 legislative election. A member of The Republicans' right-wing, he was seeking to distance the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 10 and 17 June 2012 to select the members of the 14th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a little over a month after the presidential election run-off held on 6 May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Maréchal</span> French politician (born 1989)

Marion Jeanne Caroline Maréchal, known as Marion Maréchal-Le Pen from 2010 to 2018, is a French politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2024. She is part of the Le Pen family, as the granddaughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of its later leader Marine Le Pen.

David Rachline is a French politician for National Rally. He was elected mayor of Fréjus in March 2014 and elected to the French Senate in September 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Republicans (France)</span> French political party

The Republicans is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then-President of France, Jacques Chirac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Messiha</span> French media personality, former politician and civil servant (born 1970)

Jean Messiha is an Egyptian-born French far-right economist, media personality, and formerly a politician and senior civil servant. He was appointed Deputy Undersecretary of Management at the Ministry of Defence in 2014 before he joined the National Front (FN) in 2016, when he became spokesman of Horaces, a group of high-ranking civil servants and business executives who meet once a month to discuss the party platform. Messiha stood as a candidate in the 2017 legislative election in the 4th constituency of the Aisne department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Bardella</span> French politician (born 1995)

Jordan Bardella is a French politician who has been the president of the National Rally (RN) since 2022, after serving as acting president from September 2021 to November 2022 and as vice-president from 2019 to 2022. Bardella has also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019, when he was the lead candidate for the RN in the European Parliament election, and has been a regional councillor of Île-de-France since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hervé Juvin</span> French essayist and politician (born 1956)

Hervé Juvin is a French essayist and politician who was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) on the National Rally (RN) list in 2019. He sat with Identity and Democracy (ID) until 2022, when he was expelled after being sentenced for domestic abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Rougé</span> French politician (born 1961)

André Rougé is a French politician who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 and re-elected in 2024. Member of the National Rally, he is the party’s national delegate for overseas France. He is also the founder and chairman of the influential think tank Les Horaces.

Mathilde Androuët is a French politician. She was elected as a National Rally Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2019 European parliamentary election. She was re-elected in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remigration</span> Forced or promoted return of non-European immigrants

Remigration, also called repatriation, is a far-right and Identitarian political concept referring to the forced or promoted return of non-ethnically European immigrants, often including their descendants who were born in Europe, back to their place of racial origin, typically with no regard for their citizenship. It is popular especially within the Identitarian movement in Europe. Some proponents of remigration suggest excluding some residents with non-European background from such a mass deportation, based on a varyingly-defined degree of assimilation into European culture.

Nicolas Lebourg is a French historian who specializes on far-right movements in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election, which was held in April 2022. They have been described as the most indecisive legislative elections since the establishment of the five-year presidential term in 2000 and subsequent change of the electoral calendar in 2002. The governing Ensemble coalition remained the largest bloc in the National Assembly but substantially lost its ruling majority, resulting in the formation of France's first minority government since 1993; for the first time since 1997, the incumbent president of France did not have an absolute majority in Parliament. As no alliance won a majority, it resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconquête</span> French political party

Reconquête, stylized as Reconquête!, is a ultra-nationalist political party in France founded in late 2021 by Éric Zemmour, who has since served as its leader. He was a far-right candidate in the 2022 presidential election, in which he placed fourth with just over 7% of the vote as the best newcomer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 French legislative election</span>

Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 to elect all 577 members of the 17th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The election followed the dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron, triggering a snap election after the National Rally (RN) made substantial gains and Macron's Besoin d'Europe electoral list lost a significant number of seats in the 2024 European Parliament election in France.

Dédiabolisation (transl. de-demonization) is a term used in French politics to describe the normalization of the far-right National Rally (RN), formerly known as National Front (FN), since the late 1980s.

References

  1. ↑ DeNord, François (1 July 2024). "L'élite de l'extrême droite". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  2. ↑ Faye, Olivier (6 September 2016). "Le Front national chérit ses hauts fonctionnaires". Le Monde. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  3. ↑ Woessner, Géraldine (20 March 2022). "Les Horaces : ce club secret qui a « présidentialisé » Marine Le Pen". Le Point. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Hussey, Andrew (20 June 2024). "How the far right seduced France's Gen Z". The New Statesman. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  5. ↑ Houchard, Béatrice (7 November 2016). "Les « Horaces » préparent les « 100 jours » de Marine Le Pen". L'Opinion. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  6. ↑ Faure, Justine (13 September 2016). "Qui sont les "Les Horaces", ce mystérieux collectif d'élites au service de Marine Le Pen ?". TF1 Info. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  7. ↑ Perrotin, David (22 January 2018). "Préfet, énarques, dirigeant du cac 40: l'identité de conseillers secrets de Marine Le Pen révélée par des mails". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  8. ↑ Berteloot, Tristan (26 February 2024). "Les Horaces, le cabinet obscur qui murmure à l'oreille de Marine Le Pen". Libération. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  9. ↑ "Horace: les conseillers mystère de Marine Le Pen". Radio France Internationale. 23 January 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  10. ↑ Quinio, Paul (26 February 2024). "Marine Le Pen, les Horaces et les dessous de la dédiabolisation". Libération. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.