Pierre Sidos

Pierre Sidos (born 6 January 1927 in Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron) was a French far right political figure, mainly active in the post-war era. He achieved his widest prominence as leader of Jeune Nation although he walso involved in several other movements.

Early years

Sidos' father, Francois, was active in the collaborationist Milice and he was executed on 28 March 1946 for his involvement.^[1] Pierre Sidos was interned after the war and was not released until 1949.^[2]

Jeune Nation

Sidos continued his father's political beliefs and became founder of the Jeune Nation after the Second World War, along with his brothers François and Jacques.^[3] In order to underline the credentials of the new movement Sidos chose the Celtic Cross as its emblem in honour of the Charlemagne SS Waffen Division.^[4] He also took a role in Jacques Isorni's Union des nationaux indépendants et républicains, presenting as a candidate for them in the 1951 election in Indre with a manifesto calling for the criminalisation of communism and more power to the President and Senate.^[2] Sidos was especially active during the Algerian War of Independence and was a member of the Organisation de l'armée secrète, although his role in this group was fairly minor.^[5]

Jeune Nation was banned in 1958 (although the journal of the same name, which Sidos established in June 1958, continued to publish) and Sidos initially tried to revive it the following year as the Parti Nationaliste but this group was also outlawed after it was involved in a series of civil disturbances.^[2] Sidos went into hiding but was captured in 1962 and subsequently convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the constitutional regime and of involvement in a banned organisation.^[2]

Later activity

After the collapse of Jeune Nation and his subsequent conviction Sidos set up Occident in 1964 and then l'Œuvre française in 1968 as a re-creation of his earlier group. The new group claimed to have looked to Philippe Pétain for its inspiration with Sidos now endorsing a blend of Catholicism, pan-European nationalism and anti-Semitism, with some Third Position influence, as his ideology of choice.^[6] On this platform he attempted to run in the French presidential election, 1969 although his candidature was rejected by the Constitutional Council of France on a technical basis, although it has been argued that there was a fear that any judgement in Sidos' favour would have been seen as a vindication of his collaborationist background in wider society.^[7]

After this judgement Sidos was effectively sidelined and became a peripheral figure during the 1970s, even though l'Œuvre française was still active during the 1990s.^[8] In 1982 it became part of the Regroupement Nationaliste, a coalition with Jean-Gilles Malliarakis' Mouvement Nationaliste Révolutionnaire and the Comité de Soutien au Journal Militant of Pierre Pouty and Pierre Bousquet although this group made little headway and soon fell apart.^[9]

Sidos subsequently sought co-operation with the Front National (FN) although at other times he would dismiss the party as too moderate.^[9] By the 1980s he had come to moderate his own position and sought to build a wider alliance with other fringe right-wing movements, including monarchists, integrists and the supporters of Marcel Lefebvre. To this end he joined François Brigneau, Pierre Pujo and Jean Madiran in a commemoration service for the tenth anniversary of the occupation of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet by the Society of St. Pius X in 1987.^[9]

After Jean-Marie Le Pen left the leadership of the FN, Sidos supported Bruno Gollnisch as his successor but he severed all ties with the party after Marine Le Pen took over, telling Rivarol that he did not feel a woman should have such an important position.^[10]

References