Je suis partout

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Je suis partout (I Am Everywhere) was a French newspaper founded by Jean Fayard, first published on 29 November 1930. It was placed under the direction of Pierre Gaxotte until 1939. Journalists of the paper included Lucien Rebatet, Alain Laubreaux, the illustrator Ralph Soupault, and the Belgian correspondent Pierre Daye.

[edit] Interwar

In its very beginning, Je suis partout was centered on covering international topics, without displaying extremism, antisemitism, or even a consistently right-wing approach. However, the group of editors was heavily influenced by the ideas of Charles Maurras and the integralist Action Française, and the ideology quickly spilled into the editorial content, as the more moderate journalists quit in protest.

The paper became a staple of anti-parliamentarianism, nationalism, and criticism of "decadent" Third Republic institutions and culture, becoming close to fascist movements of the era, French and foreign alike. It clearly supported Benito Mussolini as of October 1932, when Italian politics were awarded a special issue. Je suis partout was favorable to the Spanish Falange, the Romanian Iron Guard, the Belgian Léon Degrelle's Rexism, as well as to Oswald Mosley and his tiny British Union of Fascists. From 1936, it also opened to Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

Despite its international connections, Je suis partout did not recommend copying over local origin in establishing a Fascist régime: "We will regard foreign fascism only through French fascism, the only real fascism" (14 April 1939). Thus, it held Jacques Doriot in esteem for his attempts to unite the French far right into a single Front.

The antisemitic rhetoric of the paper exploded after the Stavisky Affair and the attempted coup d'état introduced by the far right rally in front of the Palais Bourbon on 6 February 1934 (see: 6 February 1934 crisis). It turned vitriolic after the forming of the left-wing Popular Front government under the Jewish Léon Blum (1936). From 1938 on, Je suis partout matched the racist propaganda in Nazi Germany by publishing two special issues, Les Juifs ("The Jews") and Les Juifs et la France ("The Jews and France"). The extreme attack caused the publishers Fayard to cut links with the paper, and it was sold to a new board - which included the Argentine Charles Lescat (who was, according to his own depiction, "a fascist as genuine as he is calm"). Shortly before World War II and the German occupation in 1940, the paper was banned.

[edit] Collaboration

It was published again from 1941, and its ultra-collaborationist stances attracted the harsh criticism of Maurras, who repudiated the paper^{[citation needed]}. Je suis partout triumphed as the voice of far right forces, and published unrestrained calls for the murder of Jews and Third Republic political figures: "The death of men to which we owe so many mournings... all French people are demanding it" (6 September 1941). It exercised an influence over an intellectual and young audience, going from 46,000 issues in 1939 to 250,000 in 1942.

Robert Brasillach was its editor-in-chief from June 1937 to September 1943 (he was to be executed for treason in 1945). Brasillach was believed to be too lenient, and was replaced with Pierre-Antoine Cousteau, brother of Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau aligned Je suis partout with the Nazi leadership, went against its roots by adhering to Nazi anti-intellectualism, and opened itself to advertising for the Waffen-SS and the Légion des Volontaires Français. Several of its editors joined either the Parti Populaire Français or the Milice. It continued to be published as late as August 1944 (the moment of the Liberation of Paris).

[edit] References

• P.-M. Dioudonnat "Je suis partout" (1930-1944). Les maurrassiens devant la tentation fasciste, éd. La Table ronde, 1973
• Michel Dobry (ed.), Le Mythe de l'allergie française au fascisme, éd. Albin Michel, 2003
• Pascal Ory, Les Collaborateurs, éd. du Seuil, "Points"-histoire, 1980
• Eugen Weber, L'Action française, éd. Hachette, 1985