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Introduction
Scholarship does not dispute the fact of a close relationship between the Front National (FN) and the Nouvelle Droite (ND) in the 1980s and 1990s. Noting the FN factions of the period, Appollonia (1996, 374) lists national-conservatives, nouvelle droitistes , national-Catholics, ex-Parti des Forces Nouvelles militants, and Organisation de l'Armée Secrète nostalgics. Davies (1999, 27-35) identifies Catholic intégristes , Algérie Française nostalgics, poujadistes , neo-liberals (nouvelle droitistes and mainstream conservatives), and monarchists. Yet, without subsequent analysis of a faction's relative influence and specific ideological predilections such a checklist approach can somewhat conceal the underlying dynamics and particular outcomes of its FN relationship. To illustrate, in 1980 there were no nouvelle droitistes in the politbureau of the FN. By 1994, there were six, with a party influence perhaps only second to Catholic intégrisme .1 Most importantly, Bruno Mégret was delegate general, in charge of party studies, propaganda, training, and communication, while Yvan Blot was the personal adviser of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Yet, without this evolution in ND influence, it is highly unlikely the FN would have incorporated concepts such as 'national preference' into party policy.
Although exceptions exist, notably Camus (1996), scholarship tends not to dwell on these processes of factional interaction, despite the fact they are often crucial to explaining FN policy and discursive emphasis at a given time, as well as exposing their historical roots. This is particularly the case with more recent studies. Declair (1999), Lecoeur (2003), and Rydgren (2004) each outline the main pivots of FN discourse (immigration, organicism, hierarchy, order, etc.) but rarely expose the affiliations and preoccupations of the groupings and individuals driving their FN propagation. This article attempts to provide a part remedy by providing an analytical narrative of the process of political, strategic, and ideological rapprochement that created an ND faction in the FN, highlighting the ND concepts, which came to colour party discourse and policy. As background, it shall investigate the history of the ND, the better to contextualize and explain the contemporary role of the FN in its meta-political strategy, while arguing that despite doctrinal evolutions and divergences the Club de l'Horloge (Club) and the Groupement de Recherche et d'Études pour la Civilisation Européenne (GRECE) shared a theoretical core, which allowed the...