# Nouvelle Action Royaliste

The New Royalist Action (French: Nouvelle Action royaliste, NAR) is a royalist political movement desiring to create a constitutional monarchy in France under the House of Orléans. A member of the International Monarchist Conference, it represents the left-wing faction of the French monarchist movement.

## History

The NAR political movement has its roots in Action Française, the major French monarchist movement before World War II, which was re-formed by Maurice Pujo in 1947 around the movement Restoration Nationale, as well as La Nation française magazine in the aftermath of the protests of 1968 and by concession of Maurice Clavel. On 31 March 1971, a breakaway movement was led by Yvan Aumont, Gérard Leclerc (director of the Institute of National Politics and national director of study circles), and Bertrand Renouvin, the author of the "Royalist Project". Alongside fellow former steering committee members Yves Lemaignen, Jean Toublanc, and Georges-Paul Wagner, they established the Nouvelle Action française; it broke with the ties to French far-right figure Charles Maurras that Action Française had, a decision that was praised by the then Orléanist throne contender Henri, Count of Paris. On 15 October 1978, it changed its name in Nouvelle Action royaliste.
Renouvin, the working-class son of French Resistance fighter Jacques Renouvin with monarchist leanings who died during the deportation to the Mauthausen concentration camp, and arguably "France's most prominent ... and reasonable monarchist", is the group's president under the title of political director. The NAR publish in particular the bimontly historical review Lys rouge, the trimestrial Cité, and the political trimestrial Royaliste, the latter of which is edited by Renouvin. For the 1974 French presidential election, Renouvin was its candidate, and obtained 0.17% of the votes. During the 1970s, several members of the NAR were elected, such as in Épinal and Angers, on the electoral lists of the Union of the Left during the municipal elections.
In 1975, dissidents founded the Provisional Committee for the Coordination of Royalist Operations led by Fabrice O'Driscoll. In the 1977 French municipal elections, then still known as the Nouvelle Action française, it presented thirteen lists in Paris and one in Nice. For the 1978 French legislative election, the NAR presented eight candidates; in addition to Leclerc and Renouvin, the other candidates included Philippe Cailleux, Régine Denis-Judicis, Michele Giraud, Nicola Luca, Stephane Monet, and Patrizio Simone. For the 1981 French presidential election, Renouvin was listed among the sixty-four individuals who expressed their desire to run for president of France; the NAR ultimately did not field any candidate, and it supported the Socialist Party candidate François Mitterrand. In 1982, the Circles of New Citizenship open to various political figures was founded. On 30 August 1984, Renouvin was appointed by Mitterrand as a member of the Economic and Social Council; Renouvin held this position until 1994.
In the 1986 French legislative elections, the NAR presented one list (M.-et-L.), which obtained 2,230 votes (0.67%). In the 1988 French presidential election, it endorsed Mitterrand's re-election bid. In November 1989, the NAR joined the 89 pour l'égalité movement, which campaigned to get voting rights for immigrants and garnered over 500,000 signatures (512,000), alongside SOS Racisme. Between April and December 1991, the NAR joined United France, a group led by Jean-Pierre Soisson. In the 1993 French legislative election, the NAR supported a negative vote against The Greens and the National Front. In the 1995 French presidential election, the NAR called for blank votes. By the time of the 2002 French presidential election, Renouvin chose to support the candidature of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, a well known republican who from 1997 to 2000 was the Minister of the Interior, and the only souverainist able in Renouvin's view to gather the good will of both the Left and Right for the purpose of regaining France her position in the world. The NAR appealed to vote against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in the French referendum on the European Constitution of 29 May 2005. For the 2007 French presidential election, the NAF again called for blank votes, citing the lack of Debout la République candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan on the ballot. In the 2012 French presidential election, it supported Dupont-Aignan in the first round and the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in the runoff.

## Ideology

The NAR describes itself as royalist (Orléanists), democratic (supporting representative democracy, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the French Constitution of 1791, and the democratization of French monarchy, citing other existing democratic monarchies in Europe, and calling for the complete continuation of the constitutional work implemented by Charles de Gaulle), and republican (considering the constitutional monarchy it supports as best representing the res publica); it says that monarchy is not an utopia, arguing that neither communism nor economic liberalism had worked to their pure theories (real socialism and actually existing capitalism), that the monarchy ruled France for eight centuries, and that while it does not seek to return to the ancien régime that died in 1789, the NAR does not consider the monarchy an outdated institution, since it remains alive in several other countries in Europe. The NAR's declared goal is to "promote the restoration of a popular monarchy embodied by the Count of Paris", and argues that the Constitution of the Fifth Republic is "entirely monarchical in inspiration".
The ideas of the NAR, which is a member of the International Monarchist Conference, are characterized by souverainism, anti-neoliberalism (they are economically Keynesian), and anti-Atlanticism (being close to the left-wing Gaullists). At its founding, it combined Gaullism, socialism, and radical regionalism. In 1989, it was described as centrist. The members of the NAR are sometimes described as "royalists of the Left", also due to close relations to certain ideas defended by the parties of the French Left, and emobodies "a royalism with Gaullist nuances". Due to this and for their calls for constitutional monarchism, which is also appreciated by the sociologist Michel Michel who was a one-time collaborator in the NAR's Arsenal review, the NAR is not considered a far-right movement, with significant differences from Action Française. As the NAR's political director, Renouvin, who is an Orléanist and a supporter of Chevènement (a significant figure of the French Left), a monarchist but anti-Maurras, and a royalist but not anti-republican, appealed to his supporters to vote for Mitterrand in both the 1981 and 1988 presidential elections. The NAR's royalism is thus seen to be "compatible with the spirit of 1789, with the rule of law and with the idea of the common good, which claims to be the continuation of the centuries-old 'party of politicians'".

## Organization

As of 2007, its headquarters were at 17, rue des Petits-Champs, 75001 Paris, and had 1,500 activists. On 28 March 2012, the NAR registered itself as a political association, citing its new address at 36–38, rue Sibuet 75012 Paris, and stating its goal as to "create a monarchical mood in public opinion; to popularize this idea; to support the action of the princes of the House of France and, in general, to undertake any operation directly or indirectly linked to the object of the association or which may facilitate its extension or development."

## Electoral results
### Presidential

| Election year | Candidate | 1st round | 1st round | 1st round | 2nd round | 2nd round | 2nd round |
| Election year | Candidate | Votes | % | Rank | Votes | % | Rank |
| 1974 | Bertrand Renouvin | 43,722 | 0.17% | 10th | | | |
| 1981 | François Mitterrand (supported as PS candidate) | 7,505,960 | 25.85% | 2nd | 15,708,262 | 51.76% | 1st |
| 1988 | François Mitterrand (supported as PS candidate) | 10,367,220 | 34.10% | 2nd | 16,704,279 | 54.02% | 1st |
| 1995 | Called for blank votes | | | | | | |
| 2002 | Jean-Pierre Chevènement (supported as MDC candidate) | 1,518,528 | 5.33% | 6th | | | |
| 2007 | Called for blank votes | | | | | | |
| 2012 | Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (supported as DLR candidate) François Hollande (supported as PS candidate) | 643,907 | 1.79% | 7th | 18,000,668 | 51.64% | 1st |
| 2017 | Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (supported as DLF candidate) | 1,695,000 | 4.70% | 6th | Called for blank votes | Called for blank votes | Called for blank votes |
| 2022 | Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (supported as DLF candidate) | 718,242 | 2.07% | 9th | Called for blank votes | Called for blank votes | Called for blank votes |