National Republican Movement
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The National Republican Movement (Mouvement National Républicain or MNR) is a French far-right political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge alumni, Yvan Blot (also a member of GRECE) and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front on January 24, 1999. Initially, Bruno Mégret was chairman, with Serge Martinez vice-chairman, Jean-Yves Le Gallou, executive director and Franck Timmermans secretary-general. Other notable members of the party included Jean Haudry, Pierre Vial, Jean-Claude Bardet, Xavier Guillemot, Christian Bouchet and Maxime Brunerie. In 2000, the party had less than 5000 members, while its youth movement, the Movement National de la Jeunesse, headed by Philippe Schleiter, nephew of Robert Faurisson, had 1500 members.[1] The student union Renouveau Etudiant had close ties with the MNR thanks to Pierre Vial. The party was initially named Front National-Mouvement National, but was forced to change its name to Mouvement National Républicain on October 2, 1999 after being sued by Le Pen for trademark infringment.[2] Although political observers considers the MNR as a far-right party, the MNR presents itself as classical liberal and nationalist. Mégret has tried in the past to distance himself from Le Pen's provocative statements, in particular concerning Holocaust denial. In 2001, a call for reconciliation between the two parties was endorsed by Roland Gaucher. Pierre Vial left the MNR in October 2001, Bruno Mégret having expressed solidarity with the US after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
Its political proposals are:
- in favor of free markets and neoliberalism;
- the fight against undesirable immigration, in particular of Islamists and, more generally, of Muslims in what they consider a predominantly Christian country.
In 2000, via the organisation Promouvoir, the MNR sued successfully for the ban of the film Baise-moi to minors. During the 2004 campaign for the regional elections, the MNR campaigned under the "No to Islamization" slogan. In 2005, it campaigned against the proposed European Constitution and the possible integration of Turkey in the European Union; Bruno Mégret said that the Europeans, including France, were lying to the Turks by having them believe they could integrate within the EU, whereas public opinion would surely reject Turkey's membership in a referendum.
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[edit] Electoral results
1999 European Parliament election : Bruno Mégret's list gets 578 774 ballots (03.28%) but fails gaining seats in the EU Parliament.
2002 French presidential election : Bruno Mégret gets 02.33% of the popular vote.
2002 French legislative elections : the MNR presents 572 candidates all around France getting 276.376 ballots and thus, 01.09% of the popular vote. No MNR candidate will be elected during this ballot.
2004 regional elections : the MNR presents candidates in 13 of the 22 Regions of France. The highest score obtained by the party is made by Alain Vauzelle in the Provence region with 02.95%.
2004 European Parliament election : the MNR gets low results with an average of 00.31% all over France.
2007 French Presidential election : Bruno Mégret and the MNR support the FN candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
2007 French legislative elections : Bruno Mégret calls for a "patriot alliance" grouping all the far-right parties. Nevertheless, neither the FN nor the MPF will positively respond to his idea. Finally, the MNR presented 379 candidates all over France and, in the areas whithout any MNR candidate, the party most of the time supported FN candidates such as Bruno Gollnisch, in Lyon's Eastern suburbs. The MNR candidates, who ran under the slogan Against Immigration, Islamization and Insecurity, only gathered 00.39% of the popular vote and were all eliminated. On March 6, 2008, Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed that the MNR was funded illegally by the UIMM, the steel industry branch of the Medef. Bruno Mégret denied these accusations, and counter-claimed that it was foolish for Jean Marie Le Pen to make such claims, as he has been already alleged to be funded by Saddam Hussein and the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. In an interview to France 2 on the same day, Le Pen precised that he had not claimed Bruno Mégret was personnally receiving funds from UIMM.[3][4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Stephen Roth Institute Report (Tel Aviv University, 2000)
- ^ Paul Webster, Le Pen win cuts far right's lifeline, The Guardian May 12, 1999
- ^ Le Pen et Mégret échangent des noms d'oiseaux Libération, 6 March 2008. (source: Agence France-Presse)
- ^ Mégret:"doutes sur la lucidité" de Le Pen Le Figaro, 6 March 2008 (source: Agence France-Presse)
[edit] External links
- (French) Official site
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