The split memory. The past of the breton nationalism: between the rehabilitation and the repudiation

Abstract

Throughout last decade France has been involved in debates dealing with the present and past of the regionalist and nationalist movement in Brittany, and to be more concrete, dealing with their controversial action during the Second World War. Inclined by ideology (sympathy for the fascist model of society) and strategy (the confidence that the collapse of the French Republic would open the door to the Breton independence), the Breton nationalist movement acquired clear commitments to the causes of Hitler or Petain since 1939.After years of silence and stigma, the relative revival of the Breton movement has unleashed a storm of controversy on account of the cooperative commitments held by the movement decades ago, with mutual accusations with two ancient and opposed practices: the redemption of past figures of nationalism collaborators whose commitments are minimized or excused, or repudiation of the whole past of Breton nationalism as a strategy to prevent the current facelift and its relative political rehabilitation.