History of far-right movements in France in the context of Camelots du Roi

The French Resistance (French: La Résistance [la ʁezistɑ̃s]) was a collection of groups that fought the Nazi occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime in France during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis in rural areas) who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. They also provided first-hand intelligence information, and escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind Axis lines. The Resistance's men and women came from many parts of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics (including clergy), Protestants, Jews, Muslims, liberals, anarchists, communists, and some fascists. The proportion of the French people who participated in organized resistance has been estimated at from one to three percent of the total population.

The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. Members provided military intelligence on German defences known as the Atlantic Wall, and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle for the Allies' invasion of Provence on 15 August. The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed sabotage acts on electrical power grids, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. The Resistance's work was politically and morally important to France during and after the German occupation. The actions of the Resistance contrasted with the collaborationism of the Vichy régime.

Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (French: [ʒɑ̃maʁi lə pɛn]), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's president from 1972 to 2011 and as its honorary president from 2011 to 2015.

Born in Brittany, Le Pen focused on issues related to immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture and values, law and order, and France's high rate of unemployment. His progression in the 1980s is known as the "lepénisation of minds" due to its noticeable effect on mainstream political opinion. His controversial speeches and his integration into public life made him a figure who polarized opinion. He was convicted of statements downplaying the Holocaust, and fined for incitement to discrimination regarding remarks made about Muslims in France. He was expelled from the party by his daughter Marine in 2015 after making controversial statements.

The New Popular Front (French: Nouveau Front populaire [nuvo fʁɔ̃ pɔpylɛːʁ], NFP) is a broad left-wing electoral alliance with centre-left, left and far-left factions in France. It was launched on 10 June 2024 to contest the 2024 French legislative election following the gains of far-right parties in the 2024 European Parliament election. The Front stood in opposition to both Ensemble, the presidential camp of Emmanuel Macron, as well as the far-right National Rally.

The Front is an alliance of La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, the Ecologist Pole, the French Communist Party, Génération·s, the Republican and Socialist Left, the New Anticapitalist Party, and other centre-left and left-wing political parties, comprising the majority of left-wing political parties in France. With the unifying motive of defeating the far-right National Rally, its name echoes the interwar anti-fascist alliance the Popular Front.

Charlie Hebdo (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁli ɛbdo]; French for 'Charlie Weekly') is a French satirical weekly magazine founded by François Cavanna and Professeur Choron in 1970, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. The publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular, libertarian, and within the tradition of left-wing radicalism, publishing articles about the far right (especially the French nationalist National Rally party), religion (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism), politics and culture.

Charlie Hebdo has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Muhammad. In the second of these attacks, 12 people were killed, including publishing director Charb and several other prominent cartoonists. In the aftermath, Charlie Hebdo and its publications became internationally recognized as symbols of free speech, culminating in the "Je Suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") movement, which underscored the global defense of freedom of expression and opposition to censorship.