Paris will host a mass in homage to Franco and Primo de Rivera
The event is organized by a far-right French association that admires the Falange.
ParisIn France, the country where thousands of Republicans went into exile after the Spanish Civil War, there are also those nostalgic for Francoism. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Francisco Franco's death this Thursday, the Notre-Dame de la Consolation chapel, located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, very close to the Spanish embassy, will host a mass on November 26th in homage to Franco and the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera. After the religious service, a fraternal luncheon will be held for all participants.
The mass is being promoted by the Franco-Hispanic Circle (CFH), a far-right association created in the 1980s by French people who admired Franco, and especially the Falangists, who at that time were close to Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. "The CFH actively contributes to raising awareness in France of the thought and actions of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, hero and martyr of the Iberian nationalist cause and of the Francoist victory in the Spanish crusade against Bolshevism," explains the association in Falangist propaganda language steeped in naf.
The current president, Hélène Grimaldi, is the widow of the circle's founder, Olivier Grimaldi, and held the second position on the 2024 European elections list for the far-right party The Nationalists, which failed to win any seats. 5,000 people voted for this party.
Controversy over the event
The news has been reported by various French media outlets such as Le Figaro, Le Parisien and Humanity And it has drawn criticism from the communists. The leader of the Communist Party in the French capital, Ian Brossat, has called for the event to be banned. "This mass must be banned: in Paris, the far right must not impose its will. We will not give in," Brossat warned in a message to X. In an accompanying statement, the communists warned that the event "aims to pay homage to figures whose legacy is inextricably linked to violence, repression, and denial."
The mass honoring Franco and Primo de Rivera will take place just two weeks after the mass held last Saturday in Verdun, a town in the Grand Est region, in homage to Philippe Pétain, the French head of state of the Vichy regime and a collaborator with the Nazis during the occupation of France. Despite the initial ban on the event by the town's left-wing mayor, the courts eventually authorized it. However, an investigation has subsequently been opened into the president of the association that organized the mass for denying crimes against humanity.
