Breton Nationalist Party

The Breton Nationalist Party (Parti nationaliste breton, or PNB) was a French political party that advocated independence for Brittany. It existed from 1911 to 1914.

It was founded in October 1911 under the patronage of a committee of seven members, including Camille Le Mercier d'Erm, Louis Napoleon Le Roux, Georges Le Rumeur, Edouard Guéguen and Emile Masson. The immediate cause of the party's foundation was the proposal to erect a monument to celebrate the unity of Brittany with France, a process which had been finalised by the 1532 treaty of union. The goal of the party was to "always and repeatedly protest against French oppression, and prepare for the resurrection of Brittany in condemnation of this movement regarding the French people depriving this country of the national independence which is its right." It advocated severing all ties between Brittany and France.

The PNB sought to unite the burgeoning Breton political movement, even though other groups already existed, most notably Bleun Brug (Heather Flower) created in 1905 by the Abbe Jean-Marie Perrot with its journal Feiz ha Breiz (Faith and Brittany). In contrast to the purely Catholic Bleun Brug, the PNB included political radicals, libertarians and leftists, along with conservatives.

At its inception, it published a manifesto and proposed a Breton national holiday on September 29, the anniversary of the coronation of Nominoë, first Duke of Brittany, and of the victory won in 1364 at the Battle of Auray by John V, Duke of Brittany against the French army of Charles de Blois.

The party's first public action took place on October 29, 1911. This was a protest at the official unveiling of the monument to Breton-French unity the Place de l'Hotel de Ville in Rennes. The monument, created by the artist Jean Boucher, depicted Duchess Anne of Brittany rising from a kneeling position before the King of France. During this event Camille Le Mercier d'Erm and André Guillemot were arrested and taken into custody by the local municipal police.

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