View source for Rexist Party

{{Short description|1935–1945 far-right Belgian political party}}
{{Infobox political party
| colorcode        = {{party color|Rexist Party}}
| name             = Rexist Party
| logo             = [[File:Emblem of the Rexist Party.svg|150px]]
| logo_size        = 125px
| founder          = [[Léon Degrelle]]
| foundation       = {{start date|1935|11|02|df=y}}<!--Date of the "Coup de Courtrai" and thus the split between Rexists and Catholic Party. There is some evidence for party activity before this date though.-->
| dissolution      = {{end date|1945|03|30|df=y}}
| split            = [[Catholic Party (Belgium)|Catholic Party]]
| headquarters     = [[Brussels]], [[Belgium]]
| newspaper        = {{lang|fr-BE|[[Le Pays Réel]]}}
| wing1_title      = {{nowrap|Paramilitary wing}}
| wing1            = {{lang|fr-BE|Formations de Combat}}{{sfn|Colignon|2001|pp=111–123}}<ref>[https://www.belgiumwwii.be/belgique-en-guerre/articles/formations-de-combat.html FORMATIONS DE COMBAT].</ref>
| ideology         = [[Belgian nationalism]]<br />[[Royalist|Belgian royalism]]<br /> [[Authoritarian conservatism]]<br />[[National Catholicism]]<ref name="Payne1984">{{cite book|author=Stanley G. Payne|title=Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGoqcg22N4gC&pg=PR13|year=1984|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-09804-9|page=xiii}}</ref><br />[[Corporate statism]]<ref>
{{cite book
 | editor1-last = Badie
 | editor1-first = Bertrand
 | editor1-link = Bertrand Badie
 | editor2-last = Berg-Schlosser
 | editor2-first = Dirk
 | editor2-link = Dirk Berg-Schlosser
 | editor3-last = Morlino
 | editor3-first = Leonardo
 | editor3-link = Leonardo Morlino
 | title = International Encyclopedia of Political Science
 | date = 7 September 2011
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn2iCQAAQBAJ
 | publisher = SAGE Publications
 | publication-date = 2011
 | page =
 | isbn = 9781483305394
 | access-date = 9 September 2020
 | quote = ... fascist Italy ... developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were ''Estado Novo'' in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian ''Standestaat'' (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe,
}}
</ref><br />[[Fascism]] (from 1937)<ref name="Brustein 1988" /><ref name="Griffin132"/><ref name="fascism">{{cite web |title=fascism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2025-04-20}}</ref><br>[[Antisemitism]] (from 1937)
| position         = [[Far-right]]
| religion         = [[Roman Catholicism]]
| affiliation1_title = [[Political alliance]]
| affiliation1     = [[Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond|VNV]] (1936–1937)<ref name="Capoccia">{{Cite book |first=Giovanni |last=Capoccia |author-link=Giovanni Capoccia |title=Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2005 |page=114}}</ref>
| colours          = {{Color box|{{party color|Rexist Party}}|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] {{Color box|#141414|border=darkgray}} [[Black]]
| anthem           = {{center|''[[Vers l'avenir]]''<br />({{lit|Towards the future}}) {{Audio|Vers l’avenir (Rexist Party Version).ogg|full song}}}}
| country          = Belgium
| flag             = [[File:Drapeau de Rex.svg|Drapeau de Rex|175px|border]]
}}

The '''Rexist Party''', or simply '''Rex''', was a far-right [[political Catholicism|Catholic]] [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] and [[corporatism|corporatist]]<ref>Cook, Bernard A. (2005). Belgium: A History (3rd ed.). Peter Lang. p. 118.</ref> political party active in [[Belgium]] from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, [[Léon Degrelle]].<ref name="Rexist movement">[https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c65f3221-b732-4789-b3fd-e8aa8045c52b/download_file?safe_filename=602323758.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Thesis The rexist movement in Belgium], PhD thesis Martin Conway, 1989, University of Oxford</ref> It advocated [[Belgian nationalism|Belgian unitarism]] and [[Royalist|royalism]]. Initially, the party ran in both [[Flanders]] and [[Wallonia]], but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and [[Brussels]]. Its name was derived from the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] journal and publishing company {{langnf|la|Christus Rex|[[Christ the King]]}}.

The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party was 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the [[1936 Belgian general election|1936 election]].<ref name="Richard Bonney pp. 175–176">Richard Bonney ''Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939''; International Academic Publishers; Bern; 2009 {{ISBN|978-3-03911-904-2}}; pp. 175–176</ref> Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the [[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|German occupation of Belgium]] in [[World War II]], Rex was the most significant [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborationist]] group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the {{langnf|nl-be|[[Vlaams Nationaal Verbond]]|Flemish National Union}} (VNV) in Flanders. By the war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following the liberation.

Initially modelled on [[Italian Fascism]] and [[Falangism|Spanish Falangism]], it later drew closer to German [[Nazism]]. The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the [[Roman Catholicism in Belgium|Catholic Church in Belgium]],<ref name=SP112>{{cite book |editor1-last=Gerard |editor1-first=Emmanuel |editor2-last=Van Nieuwenhuyse |editor2-first=Karel |title=Scripta Politica: Politieke Geschiedenis van België in Documenten (1918–2008) |year=2010 |publisher=Acco |location=Leuven |isbn=9789033480393 |page=112|edition=2e herwerkte dr.}}</ref> but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church [[Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey|Cardinal van Roey]], who called Rexism a "danger to the church and the country".<ref name="Richard Bonney pp. 175–176"/>

==Ideology==

The ideology of Rex, which was loosely based on the writings of [[Jean Denis (politician)|Jean Denis]], called for the "moral renewal" of Belgian society through the dominance of the Catholic Church by forming a [[Corporatism|corporatist]] society and abolishing [[liberal democracy]].<ref name="Brustein 1988" />  Denis became an enthusiastic member of Rex, and later wrote for the party newspaper ''[[Le Pays Réel]]''. The original programme of Rexism borrowed strongly from [[Charles Maurras]]' [[integralism]]. It rejected [[liberalism]], which it deemed decadent, and was strongly opposed to both [[Marxism]] and [[capitalism]], instead striving for a corporatist economic model, idealising rural life and traditional [[family values]].<ref name="Griffin132">{{cite book |first=Roger |last=Griffin |author-link=Roger Griffin |title=The Nature of Fascism |publisher=Pinter |year=1991 |page=132}}</ref>

It has been claimed{{by whom|date=February 2025}} that in its early period until around 1937, Rexism should not be categorised as a 'fascist movement', and that it was instead a [[populism|populist]],<ref name="Griffin132"/> authoritarian and conservative Catholic nationalist movement<ref>{{cite book |first=Jean-Michel |last=Étienne |title=Le mouvement Rexiste jusqu'en 1940 |publisher=Armand Colin |year=1968}}</ref> that initially tried to win power by democratic means, and did not want to abolish democratic institutions. The party increasingly made use of fascist-style rhetoric, but only after Degrelle's defeat in a by-election in April 1937 did it openly embrace [[anti-Semitism]] and anti-parliamentarianism, following the model of German [[Nazism]]. Historian [[Roger Griffin]] in "The Nature of Fascism" states that the Rexist Party during the German occupation of Belgium as "fully fascist"; until then, he considers it "[[proto-fascism|proto-fascist]]".<ref>{{cite book |first=Roger |last=Griffin |title=The Nature of Fascism |publisher=Pinter |year=1991 |pages=132–133}}</ref>

The Rexist movement attracted support almost exclusively from Wallonia. On 6 October 1936, party leader [[Léon Degrelle]] made a secret agreement with Rex's [[Flanders|Flemish]] counterpart, the [[Vlaams Nationaal Verbond]] ("Flemish National Union", VNV), led by [[Staf De Clercq]].<ref name=SP119>''Geheim akkoord tussen Rex en VNV'' quoted in {{cite book |editor1-last=Gerard |editor1-first=Emmanuel |editor2-last=Van Nieuwenhuyse |editor2-first=Karel |title=Scripta Politica: Politieke Geschiedenis van België in Documenten (1918–2008) |year=2010 |publisher=Acco |location=Leuven |isbn=9789033480393 |pages=119–120 |edition=2nd revised}}</ref> Both movements strove for a corporatist system. Still, unlike the Rexists, the VNV sought to separate Flanders from Belgium and to unite it with the [[Netherlands]]. The Flemish side cancelled the agreement after just one year.<ref>{{cite book |first=Giovanni |last=Capoccia |title=Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe |url=https://archive.org/details/defendingdemocra00capo |url-access=limited |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/defendingdemocra00capo/page/n124 114]}}</ref> It also faced competition from the ideologically similar (but explicitly anti-German) {{lang|fr-be|Légion Nationale}} ("National Legion") of [[Paul Hoornaert]].

===Burgundian nationalism===
On 17 January 1943, Degrelle gave a speech at an assembly of Rexists in Brussels in which he declared that Walloons were a Germanic people forced to adopt the French language.{{sfn|Wouters|2018|p=272}}{{sfn|Warmbrunn|1993|p=135}} He proclaimed a new, revolutionary "Burgundian" nationalism within the framework of a [[pan-German]] state.{{sfn|Colignon|2001|p=118}}{{sfn|Conway|1993|p=173}} Following the speech, Streel and much of Rex's old guard left the party,{{sfn|Wouters|2016|p=98}}{{sfn|Conway|1993|pp=176–177}} Walloon competitors to Rex for German favor evaporated,{{sfn|Wouters|2018|p=272}}{{sfn|Colignon|2001|p=119}} and Degrelle definitively turned his attentions away from Rex and towards the SS. Over the rest of January and February 1943, Degrelle met with Nazi functionaries in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to gain influence in the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Conway|1993|pp=180–181}}

==Pre-war politics==
The Rexist Party was founded in 1935 after its leader, Léon Degrelle, had left the mainstream [[Catholic Party (Belgium)|Catholic Party]], which he deemed too moderate. It targeted disappointed constituencies such as traditionalist Catholics, veterans, small traders and jobless people. In the [[Great Depression|Depression]] era, it initially won considerable popularity — mostly due to its leader's charisma and energy. Its most tremendous success was winning 11.5 per cent of the total vote in the [[1936 Belgian general election|1936 election]].<ref name="WorldFasc_86">{{cite book |first=Bruno |last=De Wever |chapter=Belgium |title=World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia |volume=1 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2006 |page=86}}</ref> On that occasion the Rexist Party took 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 8 out of 101 in the Senate, making it the fourth-strongest force in Parliament, behind the significant established parties (Labour, Catholic, Liberal).

However, the support for the party (even at its height) was extremely localized: Rexists succeeded in garnering over 30 per cent of the vote in the French-speaking [[Luxembourg (province)|province of Luxembourg]], compared with just 9 per cent in equally French-speaking Hainaut.<ref name="Brustein 1988"/> Degrelle admired [[Adolf Hitler]]'s rise to power and progressively imitated the tone and style of fascist campaigning, while the movement's ties to the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were increasingly repudiated by the Belgian clergy.

Degrelle ran in the April 1937 Brussels by-election against Prime Minister [[Paul van Zeeland]] of the Catholic Party, who was supported — in the hope of thwarting a Rexist victory — by all other parties, including even the Communists.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Robert O. |last=Paxton |author-link=Robert Paxton|title=[[The Anatomy of Fascism]] |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/anatomyfascism00paxt_611/page/n86 74]|isbn=9781400040940}} - Registration required for the page link</ref> The [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels|Archbishop of Mechelen]] and primate of the Catholic Church of Belgium, [[Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey]], intervened, rebuking Rexist voters, insisting that even abstention from voting would be sinful, and calling Rexism "a danger to the country and to the Church". Degrelle was decisively defeated: he obtained only 20 per cent of the vote, the rest going to Van Zeeland.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bonney |first=Richard|title=Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939 |publisher=International Academic Publishers |location=Berne |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-03911-904-2 |pages=174–175}}</ref>

{{Quote box|width=300px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote="[Degrelle] could always command a large and enthusiastic audience, for he was a handsome young man, with dreamy but searching eyes, and a voice that could be impressively thunderous or tender when he spoke (and he almost always did) about small children and his own aged mother. He presented himself as an undaunted crusader fighting for law and order, decency and selflessness, and his attacks on party leaders who had important interests in banks and industries made a deep impression and indeed were not always without justification. After his victory in the 1936 election, followed by defeat the next year, he became more overtly national socialist, introducing the theme of anti-Semitism and advocating dictatorship."|source=[[E. H. Kossmann]], historian{{sfn|Kossmann|1978|pp=628–629}} }}

===Early impact of Catholicism===
The missionary spirit of Catholic Action attracted them because it allowed them to actively pursue societal reform and see tangible results from their efforts. However, they also understood that political involvement could only achieve meaningful, large-scale change. The story of the Rexist movement is, at its core, about the attempt to channel Catholic activism—focused on moral and religious renewal—into the political sphere in Belgium. It is also how fascism took root in the Belgian context. As Rex developed politically, it came under the influence of a rapidly spreading ideology across Europe—fascism—which appeared to offer solutions to others seeking societal transformation. Given Belgium's unique historical and geographic position and the political tensions in 1930s Europe, the form of fascism that emerged within Rex held particular significance.<ref>Newes-Adeyi, Gabriella, [https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/606 "The Belgian Rexist Movement Before the Second World War: Success and Failure"]. (1987). Honors Papers. p. 606.</ref>

===Shift towards Nazism===
Afterwards, Rexism allied itself with the interests of [[Nazi Germany]] even more strongly and incorporated [[Nazism|Nazi]]-style [[antisemitism]] into its platform.<ref>Wouters, Nico (2018). "Belgium". In Stahel, David (ed.). ''Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941.'' [[Cambridge University Press]]. pp. 260–287. {{ISBN|9781316510346}}.</ref> At the same time, its popularity declined sharply.<ref name=diMuro151-3>{{cite book|last=di Muro|first=Giovanni F.|title=Léon Degrelle et l'aventure rexiste|year=2005|publisher=Pire|location=Bruxelles|isbn=2874155195|pages=151–153}}</ref> In the [[1939 Belgian general election|1939 national election]], Rex's share of votes fell to 4.4 per cent, and the party lost 17 of its 21 seats, largely to the mainstream [[Catholic Party (Belgium)|Catholic]] and [[Liberal Party (Belgium)|Liberal parties]].<ref name=diMuro151-3/>

===Factionalism===
The fleeting support the movement received in 1936 came mainly from discontented, lower-middle-class French-speaking Catholics affected by the economic depression. Following 1940, a new wave of leaders and activists emerged—those who chose to align themselves with the Nazi occupiers. As the Légion grew into the most active faction within Rex, the final generation consisted primarily of alienated young people, many of whom were trying to conceal their pasts or avoid compulsory labour service in Germany, similar to the followers of [[Jacques Doriot]] studied by Paul Jankowski in Marseilles.<ref name="Paxton2019">Paxton, R. (2019, November 7). Robert Paxton · Hitler's Belgian partner. London Review of Books. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n02/robert-paxton/hitler-s-belgian-partner </ref>

==Second World War==
{{Fascism sidebar|expanded=people}}
With the [[Belgium in World War II#18 Days' Campaign|German invasion of Belgium]] in 1940, Rexism welcomed German occupation, even though it had initially supported the pre-war Belgian policy of neutrality.<ref name=diMuro160-1>{{cite book|last=di Muro|first=Giovanni F.|title=Léon Degrelle et l'aventure rexiste|year=2005|publisher=Pire|location=Bruxelles|isbn=2874155195|pages=160–161}}</ref>  While some former Rexists went into the underground resistance or (like [[José Streel]]) withdrew from politics after they had come to see the Nazis' anticlerical and extreme anti-Semitic policies enforced in occupied Belgium, most Rexists, however, proudly supported the occupiers and assisted German forces with the repression of the territory wherever they could.<ref name=diMuro160-1/> Nevertheless, the popularity of Rex continued to drop. In 1941, at a reunion in [[Liège]], Degrelle was booed by about a hundred demonstrators.<ref name=diMuro160-1/>

In August 1944, a Rexist militia was responsible for the [[Courcelles Massacre]].

[[File:Wallonische Legion Version 1.jpg|175px|left|thumb|The {{lang|fr-BE|Formations de Combat}} used the [[Cross of Burgundy]].]]

===Collaboration===
Closely affiliated with Rex was the [[Walloon Legion]], a unit within the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]] {{lang|de|Wehrmacht}} and later the {{lang|de|[[Waffen-SS]]}} raised from French-speaking volunteers in Belgium with Rexist support after [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]]. After an initial failure to attract recruits, Degrelle volunteered for the unit as a [[publicity stunt]] and spent much of the rest of the war outside Belgium on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]. He increasingly saw the Walloon Legion as a better vehicle for seeking German support than the Rexist Party, and recruitment drained the party of its [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]]. Whilst Degrelle was absent, nominal leadership of the party passed to [[Victor Matthys]].

==={{lang|fr-BE|Formations de Combat|italic=no}}===
The Rexists had their paramilitary wing known as the {{lang|fr-BE|Formations de Combat}} (Combat Formations), founded in 1940 and having around 4,000 members.<ref name="bruyne"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Formations de Combat |url=https://www.belgiumwwii.be/nl/belgie-in-oorlog/artikels/formations-de-combat.html |website=www.belgiumwwii.be |language=nl}}</ref> Their members wore dark blue uniforms with the red [[Burgundian cross]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Littlejohn |first1=David |title=Foreign legions of the Third Reich |url=https://archive.org/details/foreignlegionsth00litt |url-access=limited |date=1981 |publisher=R.J. Bender Pub |isbn=978-0912138220 |page=[https://archive.org/details/foreignlegionsth00litt/page/n46 88]}}</ref> Due to the constant depletion of its strength through members volunteering for more active forms of service in the German forces, the {{lang|fr-BE|Formations}} had, by the end of 1943, virtually ceased to function.<ref name="bruyne">{{cite book |last1=Bruyne |first1=Eddy de |title=Moi, fuhrer des Wallons! |date=2016 |publisher=Editions Luc Pire |isbn=978-2-507-05430-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIMnDAAAQBAJ&q=Formations+de+Combat+rex&pg=PT51 |language=fr}}</ref>

===Walloon Legion===
The Walloon Legion ({{lang|fr|Légion Wallonie}}, {{lit}} "Wallonia Legion") was a unit of the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]] (''Wehrmacht'') and later of the [[Waffen-SS]] recruited among French-speaking [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborationists]] in [[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|German-occupied Belgium]] during [[World War II]].

Established in July 1941, the Walloon Legion was envisaged by [[Léon Degrelle]]'s Rexist Party as a means of demonstrating its loyalty and political indispensability in German-occupied Belgium where it had been largely ignored since the [[Battle of Belgium|German invasion of May 1940]]. Degrelle himself enlisted and increasingly saw the unit as a more important political vehicle than the Rexist Party. It participated in fighting on the Eastern Front from February 1942 but struggled to find sufficient recruits in Belgium to replace its persistently heavy losses. 

The unit was integrated into the Waffen-SS in June 1943 as the ''SS Assault Brigade Wallonia'' (''SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien'') and was almost destroyed by Soviet forces in the [[Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket|Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket]] in February 1944. It expanded slightly after the [[Liberation of Belgium|Allied Liberation of Belgium]] in September 1944 as Belgian, French, and Spanish collaborators were drafted into the unit. It was upgraded to the notional status of a [[Division (military)|division]] and re-designated as the ''SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonia'' (''SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Wallonien'') in October 1944. After heavy losses during the 1945 retreats, its remaining personnel surrendered to British forces in April 1945.

[[File:Victor Matthijs (54), chef de Rex ad interim et Marie-Joseph Collard (55), chef du département politique de Rex.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Victor Matthijs (54), interim head of Rex, and [[Louis Collard]] (55), head of Rex's political department, listen to the explanations given by one or other of their subordinates.]]

==End of Rexism==
The party had been banned from the liberation of Belgium in September 1944. With the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, many former Rexists were imprisoned or executed for their role during collaboration. [[Victor Matthys]] and [[José Streel]] were both executed by firing squad, [[Jean Denis (politician)|Jean Denis]] (who had played only a minor role during the war) was imprisoned. On March 30, 1945, at a meeting between Degrelle, Matthys and [[Louis Collard]] in Germany, the Rexist movement was officially dissolved.<ref>Conway 1994, pp. 300–302.</ref>

Degrelle took refuge in [[Francoist Spain]]. He was convicted of [[treason]] {{lang|la|in absentia}} in Belgium and [[capital punishment|sentenced to death]], but repeated requests to [[extradition|extradite]] him were turned down by the Spanish government. Stripped of his citizenship and excommunicated (later lifted in Germany), Degrelle died in [[Málaga]] in 1994.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Roy P. Domenico|title=Encyclopedia of modern Christian politics: L–Z|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0313338908|page=163|edition=1. publ.|editor2=Mark Y. Hanley}}</ref>

===Execution in a Charleroi barracks===
On November 10, 1947, Collard and Matthys were shot along with 25 other members of the Rexist movement convicted of their crimes. Collard was part of the first firing squad scheduled for 7:30 a.m.<ref>"Twenty-seven Rexist killers atoned for countless crimes", La Nation Belge ,November 11, 1947, p.  1 ( read online  [ archive ] )Registration required.</ref> After smoking his last cigarette, he was visibly overwhelmed and devastated by what awaited him and needed to be carried by the police to his execution post.<ref>Maurice De Wilde, De Tijd der Vergelding: Mooderdenaars in de stad, afl. 8, VRT, 1982.</ref>

==Leaders==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! No.
! Leader<br />{{small|{{nowrap|(birth–death)}}}}
! class="unsortable" | Portrait
! Constituency or ''title''
! Took office
! Left office
|-
| 1
| [[Léon Degrelle]] {{smalldiv|(1906–1994)}}
| [[File:Léon Degrelle portrait.jpg|80px]]
| Leader of the Rexist Party
| 2 November 1935
| July 1941
|-
|2
| [[Victor Matthys]] {{smalldiv|(1914–1947)}}
| [[File:Victor Matthys.jpg|80px]]
| Leader of the Rexist Party
| July 1941
| August 1944
|-
|3
| [[Louis Collard]] {{smalldiv|(1915–1947)}}
| [[File:Louis Collard.jpg|80px]]
| Leader of the Rexist Party
| August 1944
| 30 March 1945
|}

==Election results==
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Election year
! # of<br />overall votes
! % of<br />overall vote
! # of<br />overall seats won
! +/−
! Government
|-
! [[1936 Belgian general election|1936]]
| 271,481
| 11.49 (#4)
| {{Composition bar|21|202|background-color=#DDDDDD|{{party color|Rexist Party}}|per=1}}
| {{increase}} 21
| {{no2|in opposition}}
|-
! [[1939 Belgian general election|1939]]
| 83,047
| 4.25 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|4|202|background-color=#DDDDDD|{{party color|Rexist Party}}|per=1}}
| {{decrease}} 17
| {{no2|in opposition}}
|}

==See also==
{{portal|Belgium}}
*[[Paul Colin (journalist)|Paul Colin]]
*[[Pierre Daye]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|refs=
<ref name="Brustein 1988">{{Cite journal |last=Brustein |first=William |title=The Political Geography of Belgian Fascism: The Case of Rexism |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=53 |issue=1 |date=February 1988 |pages=69–80 |doi=10.2307/2095733|jstor=2095733 }}</ref>
}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Conway |first=Martin |date=1993 |title=Collaboration in Belgium: Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement 1940–1944 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-05500-5}}
* {{Cite book |title=For Rex and For Belgium: Leon Degrelle and Walloon Political & Military Collaboration 1940–45 |first1=Eddy |last1=de Bruyne |first2=Marc |last2=Rikmenspoel |publisher=Helion |year=2004 |isbn=1-874622-32-9}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Bruno |last=De Wever |title=Catholicism and Fascism in Belgium |journal=Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions |volume=8 |issue=2 |year=2007 |pages=343–352 |doi=10.1080/14690760701321312|s2cid=219628646 |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/431732/file/01HME858Q8HNR3AGCYC4MW548D |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book|last=Kossmann|first=E. H.|author-link=E. H. Kossmann|title=The Low Countries, 1780–1940|date=1978|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=9780198221081}}
* Littlejohn, David. ''[[The Patriotic Traitors|The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-occupied Europe, 1940–45]]''. {{ISBN|0-434-42725-X}}
* Streel, José. ''La révolution du XXème siècle'' (réédition du livre paru en 1942 à la NSE à Bruxelles), préface de Lionel Baland, Déterna, Paris, 2010.
* {{Cite encyclopedia|last=Colignon|first=Alain|title=DEGRELLE, Léon|encyclopedia=[[Biographie Nationale de Belgique]]|volume=VI|year=2001|publisher=[[Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium]]|language=fr|pages=111–123|url=https://www.academieroyale.be/Academie/documents/FichierPDFNouvelleBiographieNational2108.pdf#page=114|access-date=17 September 2021|archive-date=30 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830170202/https://www.academieroyale.be/Academie/documents/FichierPDFNouvelleBiographieNational2108.pdf#page=114|url-status=live|issn=0776-3948}}
* David Stahel, ''Joining Hitler's Crusade'' [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/joining-hitlers-crusade/belgium/220184527422E52A5E8D24847FA6096D#CN-bp-10 Chapter 10 Belgium], Cambridge University Press, 15 December 2017
* {{cite book|last=Warmbrunn|first=Werner|title=The German Occupation of Belgium 1940–1944|publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]]|date=1993|isbn=0820417734}}
* {{cite book|last=Wouters|first=Nico|title=Mayoral Collaboration Under Nazi Occupation in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, 1938–46|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|date=2016|isbn=9783319328416}}
* {{cite book|last=Wouters|first=Nico|editor-last=Stahel|editor-first=David|editor-link=David Stahel|title=Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941|date=2018|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=260–287|isbn=9781316510346|chapter=Belgium}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category-inline|Rexist Party}}

{{fascism}}
{{Belgian fascism}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

[[Category:Banned far-right parties]]
[[Category:Antisemitic political parties]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Belgium]]
[[Category:Fascist parties in Belgium]]
[[Category:Catholic political parties]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1935]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1945]]
[[Category:1935 establishments in Belgium]]
[[Category:1945 disestablishments in Belgium]]
[[Category:Belgian collaboration during World War II]]
[[Category:Defunct political parties in Belgium]]
[[Category:Catholicism and far-right politics]]
[[Category:Monarchist parties]]
[[Category:Christian fascism]]