The leaders of the extreme right in post-war France often referred to themselves as the opposition nationale. However, there is something rather odd about the behaviour of this group during the Fourth Republic. Its leaders presented themselves as intransigent opponents of everything that the regime stood for; their attitude was summed up by Jean Mazé's scathing and wide-ranging denunciation of what he called le système. However, in reality, the Fourth Republic opposition nationale often had links with the very parties, politicians and governments that they claimed to despise. Mazé's own career illustrates this paradox: in 1951 he became secretary of Isorni's party, the Union des Nationaux et Indépendants Républicans (UNIR). UNIR set out to defend the reputation of Pétain and the interests of those who had supported him. However, UNIR also sought to enter the Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (CNIP), a mainstream conservative group, and received discreet support not only from conservatives like Duchet and Mutter but from the Socialist president of the republic. This chapter will seek to show that the Fourth Republic was not confronted by an isolated and marginal opposition nationale, but rather that several partially overlapping sets of belief – Pétainism, anti-Gaullism and anti-Communism – bound together a wide range of men.

At one extreme of this range, were the small minority of unrepentant defenders of everything that the Vichy government had done.