Action Française

(“French Action”) Influential right-wing antirepublican group in early 20th-century France, whose views were promoted in a newspaper of the same name. The Action Française movement, led by Charles Maurras, espoused the antiparliamentarian, anti-Semitic, and strongly nationalist views inspired by the Alfred Dreyfus Affair. The movement peaked after World War I, when nationalist feeling was strong. It was denounced by the papacy in 1926, and ceased to exist after World War II because of its association with the collaborationist Vichy government (see Vichy France).

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