Action Française

French extreme nationalist political movement founded in 1899, first led by Charles Maurras (1868–1952). It stressed the essential unity of all French people in contrast to the socialist doctrines of class warfare. Its influence peaked in the 1920s.

Initially nationalist and republican, it was opposed to capitalism and parliamentarianism, but from 1914 it became predominantly nationalist. In the 1920s the movement obtained a degree of respectability through an alliance with the former prime minister Georges Clemenceau, and seats in the chamber of deputies. By the 1930s, Action Française had been superseded by more radical right-wing movements such as the Jeunesses Patriotes and the Croix de Feu.