The Spanish Nightmare

L’Action française, established as a daily newspaper in 1908, was among the most influential, not to say ferocious, advocates of far-right nationalism in France. It promoted the doctrine of integral nationalism, called for the restoration of a monarchy, and denounced the supposedly excessive influence of Protestants, Freemasons, and above all Jews upon France’s republican system. One its key figures, the well-known writer Charles Maurras, was imprisoned for a time after making violent, antisemitic threats against the Socialist leader Léon Blum.  

Not surprisingly, L’Action française sympathized with the monarchist cause in Spain, was strongly opposed to the Spanish Republic and followed developments during the Civil War closely. Having access to sympathizers in the Spanish Embassy and the French bureaucracy, the paper quickly drew attention to early efforts by the Popular Front government to support the Spanish Republic and rallied intense right-wing opposition to any French involvement. The paper’s columnists argued that French intervention could spark a broader European war; that supporting the Spanish Republic would dangerously destabilize France; and that the French Popular Front harboured its own violent revolutionary ambitions. 

The article portrayed here, written by Léon Daudet, one of L’Action française’s most prominent contributors, reflects the paper’s fierce hostility to the Spanish Republicans. Discussing a recent book, Cruelle Espagne, published by the right-wing brothers Jérôme and Jean Tharaud detailing Jérome’s travels in wartime Spain, Daudet cites a long passage detailing the suffering of various groups at the hands of the Republicans, and the challenges for French consular officials whom they approached to flee the country. He notes the disappointment of the Spanish writer and academic Miguel de Unamuno, who had sympathized with the Republicans but now denounced what he described as “savagery.”  

Daudet situates the Tharaud brothers’ account in relation to his own counter-revolutionary views. Describing executions carried out on Republican-controlled ships off the French coast, he links these atrocities to a broader revolutionary project which he connects not only to Spain, but to the Soviet Union as well. Suggesting that the Communist threat could engulf the Mediterranean, Daudet insists that the future of Western civilization is at stake. Invoking past revolutionary events in France, he concludes that democracies are fated to produce upheaval and destruction. 

L'Action française continued to support the Nationalists throughout the conflict; in  1938 Charles Maurras visited Nationalist-held territory, where he was personally thanked by Franco. Evidently, the Spanish Nationalists valued not only the troops and weapons supplied by Italy and Germany, as well as the French volunteers who fought for the Nationalist cause, but also intense efforts of L’Action française to confound the French Popular Front government. 

SK