The various contributions in this dossier aim to go beyond electoral issues, and to place contemporary far-right demonstrations in a long history.
In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen, candidate of the National Front, reached the second round of the presidential election, a result which sparked massive indignation. Twenty years later, the far right has won a large number of votes and hearts in France. This progression is often explained by the erasure of old lines of ideological cleavage, in a context of relegation of government and political parties. radicalization general. In short, the contemporary political landscape would be blurred by the conjunction of extremes. This type of analysis suggests that it is now impossible to define and circumscribe the extreme right, which moreover crosses multiple trends which extend and complete old nationalist, populist and fascist attachments.
The studies that will be brought together here show on the contrary that the intellectual history and sociology of the different local groups make it possible to delimit the far-right territories. Despite their fragmentation, these groups recognize themselves in a series of values, images and formulas resulting from XIXe And XXe shekels. Although current media or social networks have contributed to trivializing their discourse, we cannot say that they have given the far right another face: the media and the public have certainly been transformed, but the means of action combine novelty and tradition, as well as What do the stickers show, for example? Read Maurras recently posted on some university campuses. Moreover, these means of action differ little from those mobilized at the other end of the political spectrum.
Going beyond the electoral issues, the various contributions to this file place contemporary extreme right demonstrations in a long history, in order to shed light on their power of attraction: why do we still claim that there is no literary style except the extreme right?? What makes a monarchist movement like Action franaise, born in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, maintain itself over the long term, and still attract young people?? How do its activists, or those of Génération identitaire dissolved in 2021 for provoking hatred and discrimination, manage to remain mobilized?? What relationships do these organizations have with each other, and with the National Rally, at a time when the latter is playing the Republican card to blend in with the crowd?? The study of material and symbolic cultures, crossed with that of the internal functioning of structures, allows us to better understand the reasons for the membership of grassroots activists, but also of executives.