Rexist Party

Rex Popular Front

Front populaire de Rex
Rex Popular Front Front populaire de Rex
Founder	Léon Degrelle
Founded	2 November 1935
Dissolved	30 March 1945
Split from	Catholic Party
Headquarters	Brussels, Belgium
Newspaper	Le Pays Réel
Paramilitary wing	Formations de Combat
Ideology	Belgian nationalism; Political Catholicism; Authoritarian conservatism; Corporate statism; Fascism (from 1937); Nazism (from 1940)
Political position	Far-right
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Political alliance	VNV (1936–1937)
Colours	Red Black
Anthem	Vers l'Avenir; transl. "Towards the future"
Party flag
	Politics of Belgium; Political parties; Elections;

The Rex Popular Front (French: Front populaire de Rex),^[9] or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic authoritarian and corporatist^[10] political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by the journalist Léon Degrelle.^[11] It advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism. Initially, the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia, but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels. Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company Christus Rex (Latin for Christ the King).

The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party was 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the 1936 election.^[12] Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Rex was the most significant collaborationist group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders. By the war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following the liberation.

Initially modelled on Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism, it later drew closer to German Nazism. The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the Catholic Church in Belgium,^[13] but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church Cardinal van Roey, who called Rexism a "danger to the church and the country".^[12]

^ Colignon, Alain (2001). "DEGRELLE, Léon" (PDF). Biographie Nationale de Belgique (in French). Vol. VI. Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. pp. 111–23. ISSN 0776-3948. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
^ FORMATIONS DE COMBAT.
^ Stanley G. Payne (1984). Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-299-09804-9.
^ Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (7 September 2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications (published 2011). ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. ... fascist Italy ... developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe,
^ Cite error: The named reference Brustein 1988 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Griffin132 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Wouters, Nico (2018). "Belgium". In Stahel, David (ed.). Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge University Press. pp. 260–287. ISBN 9781316510346.
^ Capoccia, Giovanni (2005). Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 114.
^ "Tournant des élections de 1936".
^ Cook, Bernard A. (2005). Belgium: A History (3rd ed.). Peter Lang. p. 118.
^ The rexist movement in Belgium, PhD thesis Martin Conway, 1989, University of Oxford
^ ^a ^b Richard Bonney Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939; International Academic Publishers; Bern; 2009 ISBN 978-3-03911-904-2; pp. 175–176
^ Gerard, Emmanuel; Van Nieuwenhuyse, Karel, eds. (2010). Scripta Politica: Politieke Geschiedenis van België in Documenten (1918–2008) (2e herwerkte dr. ed.). Leuven: Acco. p. 112. ISBN 9789033480393.

[1] Colignon, Alain (2001). "DEGRELLE, Léon" (PDF). Biographie Nationale de Belgique (in French). Vol. VI. Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. pp. 111–23. ISSN 0776-3948. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.

[2] FORMATIONS DE COMBAT.

[Payne1984-3] Stanley G. Payne (1984). Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-299-09804-9.

[4] Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (7 September 2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications (published 2011). ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. ... fascist Italy ... developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe,

[Brustein_1988-5] Cite error: The named reference Brustein 1988 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Griffin132-6] Cite error: The named reference Griffin132 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[7] Wouters, Nico (2018). "Belgium". In Stahel, David (ed.). Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge University Press. pp. 260–287. ISBN 9781316510346.

[Capoccia-8] Capoccia, Giovanni (2005). Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 114.

[9] "Tournant des élections de 1936".

[10] Cook, Bernard A. (2005). Belgium: A History (3rd ed.). Peter Lang. p. 118.

[Rexist_movement-11] The rexist movement in Belgium, PhD thesis Martin Conway, 1989, University of Oxford

[Richard_Bonney_pp._175-176-12] Richard Bonney Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939; International Academic Publishers; Bern; 2009 ISBN 978-3-03911-904-2; pp. 175–176

[SP112-13] Gerard, Emmanuel; Van Nieuwenhuyse, Karel, eds. (2010). Scripta Politica: Politieke Geschiedenis van België in Documenten (1918–2008) (2e herwerkte dr. ed.). Leuven: Acco. p. 112. ISBN 9789033480393.

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