Robert Hersant

Robert Hersant (30 January 1920 – 21 April 1996) was a French newspaper magnate with right-wing political views.

Hersant was born in Vertou, Loire-Atlantique.

Initially involved with the Socialist Youth movement in 1935, Robert Hersant founded the rightist political party Jeune Front in the summer 1940. During that period, he became a friend of Jean-Marie Balestre. Jeune Front although a small group, was publishing the rabidly pro-Nazi newspaper Au Pilori. He left this movement in October 1940, to become a member of the secretariat general de la jeunesse of the Vichy Regime. In 1941-1942, he created a camp in Brévannes, named after the Marshal Philippe Pétain to indoctrinate young people in the Révolution nationale ideology. Although he managed to escape the first waves of the Épuration légale, he was arrested and jailed for one month in Fresnes on 15 June 1945. He was tried in 1947 and sentenced to 10 years of national indignity for collaboration with Nazi Germany. The court emphasized that Jeune Front had received support from the Nazis as early as August 1940 to justify that sentence. Due to this collaborationist past, satirical papers would misspell Hersant's name Herr Sant. In 1952, however, he benefited from the general amnesty.

His condemnation for collaborationism did not stop him from starting in the business of publishing. After launching a few unsuccessful publications, (Bazars et Galeries, l'Equipement Ménager, le Quincailler), in 1950, he started L'Auto-Journal, which met success due to the increasing popularity of automobiles. In October 1952, he bought la semaine de l'Oise and used it to launch his political career. In February 1953, he was elected mayor of Ravenel, Oise, and in January 1956 he ran for a deputy seat in the Assemblée Nationale as a radical candidate. He was elected with the support of French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR). However, on 18 April 1956 his election caused a heated debate at the Assemblée Nationale due to his collaborationist past. The Assemblée Nationale cancelled his election, but on 25 October 1956 he was reelected. As a deputy, Robert Hersant championed a reform of the constitution of 1946, altering the articles 45, 46, 47, 48 and 52. It would have permitted the direct election of the Président du Conseil, and would have obliged him to form his cabinet from personalities that did not belong to legislative bodies. He also advocated a partition of Algeria as a solution to the Algerian War. In 1958, Hersant became Gaullist. In 1967, he was elected as a socialist with the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left. He then became a conservative supporting Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. He remained a deputy until 1978. In 1984, he became a deputy in the European Parliament on the Rally for the Republic–Union for French Democracy (RPR/UDF) list led by Simone Veil. He remained a European Deputy until his death.

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