[Theobald]

First, some informations about the French former nationalist movement "Occident" :

Occident (1964-1968) was a French far-right, fascist-leaning violent political group. (...)

Founded by Pierre Sidos in 1964, it mostly recruited university students. Occident was intensely anti-communist, but also denounced the administration of president Charles de Gaulle, making common cause with the pied-noirs who accused de Gaulle of having sold them out.

Occident's ideology was anti-democratic and anti-liberal, anti-communist, against Freemasonry, and openly racist.

Occident was a very violent group. In Paris' student quarter (the "Quartier Latin") they regularly attacked leftist groups. As an example, the following incident was recalled in a recent book : On January 12, 1967, a group of Occident members attacked the Vietnam committees on the campus of the university of Rouen; about 20 members of Occident were arrested, including Gérard Longuet, Alain Madelin and Patrick Devedjian (all future right-wing ministers).

It is even said by some historians that Occident attacks against communist students contributed to the explosion of May 68. During May 68 some members joined rioters against the Gaullist regime, though most of them fought leftists as unofficial auxiliaries of police.

On October 27, 1968, Occident launched an unprecedented wave of anti-communist attacks : they bombed and destroyed offices of the SNESUP (communist trade union) and Action (anarchist newspaper), burned with Molotov cocktails the café Relais-Odéon (where anarchist militants used to meet) and finally bombed and damaged a maoist bookshop.

Occident was then termed an illegal violent group and dissolved by the administration. Many of its former members joined newer far-right groups such as the Groupe Union Droit (the famous GUD).

Famous Occident's mottos were :

- "Tuez les communistes partout où ils se trouvent!" - "Kill communists everywhere they are!"

- "Gauchistes, ne vous cassez pas la tête, Occident le fera pour vous." - "Leftists, don't break your head (which means "don't worry" in French - play on word), Occident will do it for you"


Then, let's look at former Occident activists who later became more "respectable"... Were members of Occident :

- Patrick Devedjian : UMP's general secretary (probably UMP's next president), former Minister, a close adviser to Sarkozy and his best friend

- Hervé Novelli : UMP deputy and leader of the liberal wing of UMP (strongest Sarkozy's supporters)

- Gérard Longuet : co-leader of the liberal wing of UMP, former Minister, a close political adviser to Sarkozy (political and electoral strategy)

- Alain Madelin : UMP deputy and member, former president of the liberal party Démocratie Libérale (that created UMP with the "gaullist" RPR)

- Jean-Jacques Guillet : UMP deputy, close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy (they are from the same department)

- Claude Goasguen : spokesman for Sarkozy's presidential campaign, UMP deputy of Paris, probably next Paris' mayor

- Eric Raoult : UMP deputy and vice-president of the French National Assembly, close friend of Sarkozy