New Right-wing Group Emerging In France

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 22

New Right-wing Group Emerging In France

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—-Copyright) PARIS The extreme Right is emerging again in France amid street battles, commando raids, rumour campaigns and an energetic propaganda programme. Young toughs recently raided a theatre in Paris and beat up members of the audience, assaulted a liberal priest on the pavement outside his church, and smashed furnishings in another church where a modern “folk Mass” was being celebrated. At the same time antiSemitic rumour campaigns have swept several French communities, socially isolating long - time Jewish residents and damaging their businesses. On the political front, a new organisation, “Ordre Nouveau” (New Order), has launched a recruiting and propaganda drive, announcing its aim as “cleaning up the Leftist mess.” After savage fighting between Left and Right-wing students on university campuses earlier this year. New Order said that the Leftists had been held in check by “nationalists.” New Order also planned a mass meeting at a Paris hall, inviting representatives of Mr Adolf von Thadden’s West German New Democratic Party, which has many former Nazi members, the Spanish Falange and Italian neo-Fascists.

The police banned the meeting, averting a possible bloody confrontation in the heart of Paris as Leftists prepared to turn out in force. The recent theatre raid was in protest against a play about the late Eva Peron, wife of the former Argentine president, in which

she was played by a man. The police said that the attackers belonged to New Order, and later arrested one of its members. The newspaper “Le Monde" quoted a spokesman for New Order as saying that the raid was “too violent,” and had not been ordered by the group’s leaders, but that the play deserved to be “knocked about.” STRONG SUPPORT New Order, which was created only about three months ago, already appears more powerful than older extreme Right-wing groups. Within a few weeks of its foundation it claimed 1700 paying members and thousands more supporters. The organisation’s members include former activists for the “Occident” (West) movement, banned in 1988 for disturbing public order. New Order’s symbol is the same one that Occident used —the Celtic cross (a cross inside a circle).

The organisation calls for struggle for national renewal, and cites as nationalist examples the military-backed governments of Brazil and Greece and the Spanish Falanage, among others. Spokesmen for New Order and most smaller Rightist groups reject the label “fascist,” and say that their main aim is to counter the threat from the left RAID ON MUSEUM

The possibility of a clash between the extreme Right and France’s powerful Communist Party has grown sharper since a raid on a Communist - sponsored Paris museum devoted to Lenin. The attackers, striking before dawn, smashed exhibits. The Communists reacted with a protest rally at which the party’s deputy leader (Mr Georges Marchais) ; alleged that the Government

was turning a blind eye on a fascist resurgence. Mr Marchais also linked the museum attack with sabotage attempts against a ship being built for Russia at Dunkirk.

The police are still investigating the origins of antiSemitic rumours that swept the cities of Orleans, Amiens and Dinan in recent months. The rumours, identical each time, said that local Jewish merchants were part of an international white slavery ring, and that young women had disappeared after going alone to their shops. In each case, the police announced that there had been no such disappearances. CHARGES LAID Some French press commentators believe that the authorities struck a blow against the development of a wider Right-wing movement when they arrested 16 men, including former members of the Secret Army Organisation, and charged them with a series of bank robberies. The O.A.S. once waged a violent fight against the granting of independence to Algeria. Two of the men l arrested last month, Jean-’ Jacques Susini and Gilles de Buscia, had previously been convicted of taking part in an O.A.S. plot to assassinate General de Gaulle.