Roland Gaucher (; 13 April 1919 – 27 July 2007) was the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in

Marcel Déat Marcel Déat (; 7 March 1894 – 5 January 1955) was a French politician. Initially a socialist and a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he led a breakaway group of right-wing Neosocialists out of the SFIO in 19 ...

's fascist party

Rassemblement National Populaire The National Popular Rally (, RNP, 1941–1944) was a French political party and one of the main collaborationist parties under the Vichy regime of World War II. Created in February 1941 by former members of the French Section of the Workers' ...

(RNP) under the

Vichy regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

. Sentenced to five years of prison for

Collaborationism Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime. As historian Gerhard Hirschfeld says, it "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to the 19th c ...

after the war, he then engaged in a career of journalism, while continuing political activism. One of the co-founders of the National Front (FN) in October 1972, he became a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for the FN in 1986.

Early career

Roland Gaucher entered politics as a far-left activist, first as a member of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

group '' Fédération des étudiants révolutionnaires'' (Federation of Revolutionary Students) and then of the '' Jeunesses socialistes ouvrières'' (Workers' Socialist Youth), where he met with Robert Hersant and Alexandre Hébert, who would become one of the leaders of the social-democrat trade-union '' Force Ouvrière'' (FO)."Le FN perd son cofondateur, Roland Gaucher", in ''

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

'', 2 August 200
read on-line
However, Gaucher shifted to the far right during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, joining

's ''

'' (RNP)

Fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

party in March 1942.Roland Gaucher (obituary)
''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'', 1 August 2007 He was responsible for the RNP's youth organisation, and for its Parisian section from May to November 1943."Ils" avaient un Kamarade !
, ''

REFLEXes In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a Stimulus (physiology), stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous s ...

'', 11 August 2007 He criticized the

for being too "moderate" and not executing enough people. At the time of France's Liberation, he was in charge of deleting the archives of the ''National Populaire'' 's readers, which was the mouthpiece of the RNP. At the end of 1944, according to Marcel Déat's diary, he fled with Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

's men to the

Sigmaringen enclave The Sigmaringen enclave was a temporary government-in-exile formed by remnants of France's Nazi-collaborating Vichy regime during the final stages of World War II. Established in the requisitioned Sigmaringen Castle in southwestern Ger ...

in Germany.

Post-war (1945–1980s)

Gaucher was sentenced to five years of prison for Collaborationism after the war. After that, he took up a career in journalism, working in Robert Hersant's '' L'Auto-Journal'' (Hersant had also been condemned for Collaborationism ), '' Les Ecrits de Paris'', '' Est et Ouest'' and then as a

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

(''grand reporter'') for the far-right newspaper ''

Minute A minute is a unit of time defined as equal to 60 seconds. It is not a unit in the International System of Units (SI), but is accepted for use with SI. The SI symbol for minutes is min (without a dot). The prime symbol is also sometimes used i ...

'' from 1965 to 1984. In the meantime, he joined Georges Albertini's

anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

networks through the BEPI and '' Est and Ouest''. He participated in Pierre Poujade's movement.Biography
on the Voltaire Network's website, 15 September 1997 In the middle of the 1950s, he joined

Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour (; 12 October 1907 – 29 September 1989) was a French lawyer and Far-right politics, far-right politician. Elected to the National Assembly (France), National Assembly in 1936, he initially collaborated with the Vichy ...

's '' Rassemblement national'', becoming its secretary general. From 1959 to 1960 he was an employee of the ANFAN (''Association National des Français d'Afrique du Nord'', National Association of Frenchmen from North Africa), and in 1961 secretary of the AEIPI. He was one of the co-founders of the National Front (FN) in October 1972, becoming a member of its directing committee. But Gaucher then participated in the split in 1974 leading to the creation of the '' Parti des forces nouvelles'' (PFN), gathering radical activists who considered

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...

to be too "moderate." There, he contributed to the magazine ''Initiative nationale''. Gaucher was a member of the central committee of the PFN in 1974, and then of the political bureau in 1976. He was the PFN's representative during the Eurodroite meeting in Paris on 28 June 1978, which gathered the Italian MSI, the Spanish '' Fuerza Nueva'' and the Belgian '' Forces Nouvelles'' along with the PFN for the 1979 European elections. In 1979, he quit the PFN along with François Brigneau to rejoin the FN, at the request of Jean-Pierre Stirbois.

Career in the FN (1980s–1990s)

Roland Gaucher entered the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in 1986 under the banner of the FN, replacing

Dominique Chaboche Dominique Chaboche (12 May 1937, Paris – 16 November 2005) was a French far-right wing politician and member of the European Parliament affiliated to the '' Front National''. He succeeded to Alain Robert as general secretary of the Nationa ...

, and was vice-president of the European delegation for the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 Sovereign state, states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its ...

(ASEAN). He was also elected as regional counsellor of the

Picardy Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...

region (1986–1987) and then of the

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou dialect, Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; ; also ; ; all ) is a cultural and Provinces of France, historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of France, departments of Doub ...

(1992–1998). He remained an active member of the FN from 1981 to 1993. He successfully sued ''

'' and ''

L'Est Républicain ''L'Est Républicain'' (; ) is a daily regional French newspaper based in Nancy, France. ''L'Est Républicain'' was established in 1889 by Léon Goulette, a French Republican. The newspaper was founded on the grounds of ''anti- Boulangisme'' ...

'' for defamation in 1992, which accused him of being a former

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

.''La Montée du Front national 1983–1997'', ''op.cit.'' p.415 He founded in 1984 the FN's weekly '' National-Hebdo'', of which he was

chief editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's Editing, editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is hel ...

until 1993. He also directed '' Le Crapouillot'', which he owned, from 1991 to 1994. In 1993, he took his distances with Le Pen's FN, charging it of being too institutional. Revelations by the press on his past also had a role in this decision. Although he stop paying his membership to the FN in August 1994, he remained "''apparenté FN''" in the Franche-Comté regional council. He got closer at this time to other far-right structures, such as the ''

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

'', led by his friend Jean Castrillo, and Jean-François Touzé's '' Alliance Populaire'' (Popular Alliance). He also collaborated articles to the '' Unité Radicale'' 's website in 2001–2002, a party close to the

Third Position The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that were first described in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented ...

's ideas, and took part to one of its meetings on 22 September 2001. He also wrote a few articles for Christian Bouchet, leader of Unité Radicale, until 2005 and also for Philippe Randa. Gaucher also signed the call for "national reconciliation" between the FN and Bruno Mégret's National Republican Movement (MNR) in 2001. Gaucher, who had once declared in one of his books being a member of the National Populist tendency of the FN, maintained links as much with the Lefebvrist Catholics as he did with the "Nationalist Revolutionaries". He was also for a time a member of the patronage committee of

Alain de Benoist Alain de Benoist ( ; ; born 11 December 1943), also known as Fabrice Laroche, Robert de Herte, David Barney, and other pen names, is a French political philosopher and journalist, a founding member of the ''Nouvelle Droite'' (France's European Ne ...

's GRECE.

Works

* ''L'Opposition en URSS 1917–1967'',

Albin Michel Albin may refer to: Places * Albin, Wyoming, US * Albin Township, Brown County, Minnesota, US * Albin, Virginia, US People * Albin (given name), origin of the name and people with the first name "Albin" * Albin (surname) ;Mononyms * Albin of ...

, 1967. * ''Histoire secrète du Parti communiste français'', Albin Michel, 1975. * ''Les Terroristes'', Famot, 1976. * '' Monseigneur Lefebvre, combat pour l'Église'', Paris, Éditions Albatros, 1976. * ''Les Finances de l'église de France'', Albin Michel, 1981. * ''Le Réseau Curiel ou la subversion humanitaire'', Jean Picollec, 1981. * ''Les Nationalistes en France, tome 1 : La Traversée du désert (1945–1983)'', Publications Roland Gaucher, 1995. * ''Les Nationalistes en France, tome 2 : La montée du FN, 1983–1997'', Jean Picollec, 1997, 448 p. * ''Les Manipulateurs de la culture'', Deterna, 1998. * (in collaboration with Philippe Randa), ''Les "Antisémites" de gauche'', Deterna, 1998. * (in collaboration with Philippe Randa), ''Rescapés de l' Épuration tome 1: Tome 1, Le journal de guerre de

'' Paris : Dualpha, 2002–2004. * (in collaboration with Philippe Randa), ''Rescapés de l' Épuration tome 2: Les réseaux de Georges Albertini'' Paris : Dualpha, 2002–2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaucher, Roland 1919 births 2007 deaths Politicians from Paris Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party politicians National Popular Rally politicians Party of New Forces politicians National Rally politicians Former Marxists French military personnel of World War II People convicted of indignité nationale

Early career

Post-war (1945–1980s)

Career in the FN (1980s–1990s)

Works

See also

References