Gaullism

Charles de Gaulle in 1942.

The Gaullism (from French, Gaullisme), sometimes De Gaullismo (pronounced [golismo]), is a French political ideology based on the ideas and presidential policies of Charles de Gaulle.

Within Gaullism, two opposing tendencies can be observed. Its sympathizers aspire on the one hand to cultural and social traditionalism, but on the other they are open to technical and economic modernization. After the end of the French Fourth Republic in 1959, Gaullism became the fundamental philosophy of the French Fifth Republic, remaining the dominant political movement until the resignation of Charles de Gaulle as president in 1969.

Gaullism gave rise to the creation of various political parties. Its initial expression was the Grouping of the French People (Rassemblement du Peuple Français, RPF) (1947-1952), a party created and dissolved by the general himself. Later, between 1953 and 1958, the Gaullist parliamentary group was called the Union of Social Action Republicans (URAS) and later Social Republicans.

Later on, Gaullism inspired the ideology of the following political parties (de Gaulle himself was not a militant and described himself as independent) that supported and gave the President a parliamentary majority and that subsequently continued his ideological legacy. From then to the present:

• Centro Nacional de los Republicanos Sociales (National Center of Social Republics)Centre national des républicains sociauxCNRS (1955-1958)
• Union for the New RepublicUnion pour la Nouvelle République(UNR) (1958-1962)
• Democratic Labour Union (Democratic Labour Union)Union Démocratique du Travail(UDT) (1958-1962)
• Union for the New Republic-Democratic Labour Union (UNR-UDT) (1962-1967)
• Democratic Union for the V Republic (UDVe) (1967-1968)
• Union of Democrats for the Republic (Union des Démocrates pour la République(UDR) (1968-1976)
• Agruption by the Republic (Rassemblement pour la République, RPR) (1976-2002)
• Movement for France (1994-2018)
• Union for a Popular MovementUnion pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP) (2002-2015)
• National Group (2011-onwards)
• Debout la France (2014-in advance)
• The Republicans (Les Republicains, LR) (2015-hereinafter)

Gaullist doctrine and principles

General de Gaulle was a pragmatic politician, who directed his actions according to the circumstances, not generally governed by some inviolable principles with which to achieve the desired objectives. Therefore, the assessment of these principles cannot be understood as a doctrine in the strict sense. Gaullism is, in principle, a political philosophy that incorporates the following elements:

• France has done great things in the past, being one of the most important nations in the world, with a tendency to a common destiny of all the French (the Crusades and the cavalry, the Great Century of Louis XIV and the splendor of French culture through Europe, with the French Revolution or the Battle of Valmy).
• On the other hand, France has historically felt the temptation to replenish itself because of its own internal (political, social, intellectual) struggles, which is why it would have come into decline.

Consequently, in order for it to be able to give the best of itself and put itself at the head of nations, France must be under the unifying command of a head / a State / a project, articulated by political institutions (with a bipartisanship effective), economic (this unifying plan) and social (it is based on a strong social participation), adequate to avoid internal fights.

In the bosom of Gaullism is therefore this patriotic philosophy of humanism, heir to Christianity: De Gaulle participated before the war in Christian-Democratic circles, also drawing influences from the French Revolution. The general himself once declared: "There is only one worthwhile cause. The cause of man".

Consequently, on the political level, traditional Gaullism advocates:

• The independence of France, rejecting supranational agencies (UN, European Community, NATO), and the influence of superpowers (United States) or economic and financial powers. This independence is defended in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and military fields.
• A strong executive (presidential regime) and stable (bipartisan leadership to obtain a clear majority), but immersed in a republican and democratic framework.
• A direct relationship between the chief and the people, avoiding the presence of intermediaries (choice of the head of State in direct universal suffrage, frequently resorting to the referendum).
• The grouping of all the French, beyond the left-right division (which would be a source of decay), through the direct relationship with the boss.
• The rejection of classical economic liberalism, for the benefit of a state-driven economy with a voluntary vision (planning, land management, large public projects, keynesianism, etc.).
• The double rejection of more liberal cutting capitalism (as exploitation of one class by another) and of revolutionary socialisms based on class struggle, the search for a social “third way”. Beyond advanced social protection, the participation (in profits, in decisions, in the ownership of the company), also called "capital-working association", should reconcile the French among them, serving the ideals of justice and effectiveness.
• In practice, these principles are embodied in a pragmatic model that rejects the ideological shorts, with a view to achieving the goals marked (independence and political projection of France in foreign policy, internal unity in the service of a patriotic project).

Gaullisms of the right and left

Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic from 1995 to 2007.

Gaullism managed to bring together men and women of all political origins around the action of a man, Gaullism is by its very nature diverse in its composition. During the general's life, these different sensibilities disappeared or were attenuated through his arbitration. But after his disappearance, the different branches of Gaullism clashed harshly:

• The neogaullism Rightist (represented by Georges Pompidou and Jacques Chirac). This current, close to the traditional Gaullism of the 1970s, was gradually returning to the "mould" of the rest of the European right: the neo-gaulists defend atlantism, economic liberalism (conversion occurred in the early 1980s) and European construction. However, while NATO supporters, the neo-gaulists also defend the idea of a powerful and independent Europe of the United States. Part of this idea would have materialized with the return in 2009 of France to the military structure of NATO under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, from which he left in 1966 by decision of De Gaulle himself.

• Social and patriotic Gaullism (whose representatives would be among other Phlippe Séguin and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan): defenders of social democracy and without being involved in the capitalist cause (social-democratic reformism), this Gaullism, immersed in the defense of national independence and the role of France in the world, is the closest to traditional Gaullism.

• Leftist Gaullism (among others, Louis Vallon or René Capitant), is a fraction that rejects capitalism to build a third social path. This sector would be represented even by the pan-capitalism of Marcel Loichot, which intends to progressively re-establish, through the practice of a long distribution of shares, the capital of the companies at the hands of their employees.