The Walloon Action

the Walloon action was of 1933 with 1940 the newspaper of the Ligue of Walloon action of Liege, but was at the same time a review of ideas radiating beyond its company name of periodical of a movement.

The team of the publication and her financial supports

It obtained from the start the support of Georges Thone. It is initially Auguste Buisseret which directs the newspaper and expresses there the official position of the League Georges-A.Detry (which is journalist with the Meuse and correspondent of the French newspaper Time), is responsible for the foreign politics, Maurice Firket of the economic problems, Rene Pouret of the interior policy, Georges Truffaut, Marcel Thiry, Jean Rey come to supplement this editorial board that Alain Clara, Philippe Destatte and Paul Delforge consider exceptional It is certain that Georges Thone supported it like patron, but it is possible also that it had, via this francophile Walloon militant, a direct support coming from France. It regularly appears every month until the German invasion.

The newspaper is also very attentive with the cultural topicality in all the fields: music, history, literature. It opens its columns with socialist, catholic and liberal politicians. The attention of the persons in charge of the League is concentrated so much on the newspaper which the movement itself is neglected. In 1938, Fernand Schreurs is co-opted at the committee of the newspaper and will deal with the recruitment of members of the League.

Political line and program

In 1939 the newspaper enters a difficult phase with the resignation of Auguste Buisseret. Consequently the newspaper will be directed by a pluralist triumvirate composed of the liberal Jean Rey, the G.Truffaut Socialist and the catholic Englebert Renier. In 1939, Georges Thone undertakes to write well documented official statements and ernsuite addressed to all the Belgian press. The team of the newspaper is concerned with launching a Walloon Economic council which will be born in 1939, which will remain after the war then will become an official organization under the name of Economic council of the Walloon region then of Economic and Social Council of the Walloon region. The publication also worries about the votes of the linguistic laws, of the transfer of companies of the Wallonia towards the Flanders, of the question of the Bouchon of Lanaye, fight against the Fascisms and in particular that of Rex, over all rejects the policy of neutrality followed by Belgium starting from 1936 pennies the impulse of Léopold III and Paul-Henri Spaak. The political program of the Walloon action holds in three points: equality between Walloons and Flemings by the federalism, national defense and economic development by a union with the France, finally, refusal of any bilingualism.

January 1933: Hitler seizes the power

In January 1933, at the time of the publication of the first number of the publication Hitler seized the power in Germany. From the start the drafting of Detry, person in charge of the foreign politics is very hostile: Wallonia, which is with the steps of the East, cannot remain indifferent to the events of Germany. The advent of Hitler to the Chancellery of the Reich must be a serious warning. the door is opened with Berlin with all the adventures If the Nazis, whose social program is clearly revolutionist, succeed in dominating monarchies of Hugenberg and the juntas whose tendencies récationnaires are ultra-known, one has to expect worst. Dictatorship based on terrorism and resting on the police force inside; campaigns revisionists and perhaps takeovers by force towards Dantzig, Vienna, Eupen, outside. It is time to react and show vigilance. The policy of the concessions made faillite.

Like Jules Destrée in the Evening, Marcel Thiry deplores highly the absence of Léopold III with the funeral (1934) of Raymond Poincaré former President of the République and besides of any Belgian representation . The monthly magazine is also delighted in 1934 by the fall by the Government by Charles de Broqueville which proposed at the Belgian Parliament to vote a law on the expulsion from abroad. It also blames the Belgian nationalism of Paul Colin in Cassandre , the idea of Grande Belgium fascistic of Joris Van Severen and the Verdinaso, the nomination of the Count Charles d' Aspremont Lynden as ambassador with Paris which it regards as a hitlérien convinced, the antisemititism of VNV, Leon Degrelle of which the victory with the elections of May 1936 (where it obtains from the start 21 seats with the Chambre) is also perceived like a defeat of the Walloon Mouvement. Rene Pouret denounces as a Leon Degrelle: The action of a chief whose party conquered voices in Walloon country and with Brussels by camouflaging what he said to Antwerp and with Eupen; who affirms today like consequence of his ideology hiltlérienne and his worship of the force, an integral germanism.

After the elections of 1937 which sees the defeat of Degrelle (in Brussels it was presented vis-a-vis Paul Van Zeeland and was beaten), and which became federalistic, Maurice Firket is delighted by its defeat, because, for him, this federalism is a manner of abdication of Wallonia. In the same delivery the newspaper blames Joseph-Maurice Remouchamps which with the Walloon Assemblée was expressed in a way which betrays its sympathy to the chief of Rex. Georges Truffaut also blames the presence of Paul Collet at work of the Parliament.

Neutrality, Rexisme and monarchy

For Marcel Thiry, the rexism is beyond Leon Degrelle: The rexism as a political disease triumphs. Because the rexism it is primarily this abandonment of the rights of the Parliament inside, of the Alliance fran1caises and English outside. That this policy marked by the royal speech of October, by the royal voyage to London of April, is followed by Rex or the king, one should not be large Latinist to see that it is same the chose.

When France and England declare the war in Germany, the leading article of the Walloon action estimates that Belgium is neutral but the Walloons are not to it . Neutrality said already the newspaper before September 1939, under the signature of Tuffaut runs up against Wallonia because It knows that while letting crush France it would sign its own dead stop DER.

The Encyclopédie of the Walloon Movement estimates that the drawn newspaper at 5.000 specimens, is very read, dreaded and is commented on in the Belgian press. Its influence was considerable, as well by the relevance of the problems raised as by quality and the force with which they were treated. . In spite of the censure forced on the Belgian press to parir of the declaration of war of England and France in Germany, in spite of searchings carried out with the printing works of Georges Thone, the ton of the publication will not change.

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