On October 9, the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, of which billionaire Bernard Arnault is a member, is hosting a conference in honor of Jacques Bainville. A former academician and prominent journalist for the Action française, Bainville is known for his association with antisemitism, a stance supported by Éric Zemmour and cited by Gérald Darmanin. The event is organized by the entire clique of the Action française, France's oldest active far-right group, though the group's name is not listed on the event program. Co-organizers include the Nouvelle revue universelle, the theoretical journal of the Action française, and the Cercle de Flore, the group's platform for training and public discussions. Also involved is the association Les amis de Jacques Bainville, led by Hilaire de Crémiers, head of Restauration nationale, a movement originating from the Action française. This is not the first time the Académie des sciences morales et politiques has linked itself with far-right theorists. In January, the institution inducted Bernard Arnault and invited Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and a prominent figure in the libertarian tech movement. A small protest occurred in front of the Institut de France in Paris in response to Thiel's attendance. In November 2024, a conference organized by the Action écologie association, founded by philosopher Chantal Delsol, also brought together leading figures from France's climate-skeptical movement. A university specialist in the far-right has criticized the Academy's decision, noting that it has long been a refuge for reactionaries. Olivier Dard, a history professor at the University Paul Verlaine in Metz and author of works on the history of radical right-wing movements, will speak at the conference. Jacques Bainville, born in Vincennes on February 9, 1879, and died in 1936, wrote Histoire de France, a bestseller published in 1924. He was a leading historian for royalists and a close associate of Charles Maurras, the architect of "state antisemitism" and a militant later condemned to life imprisonment in 1945 for collaborating with Nazi Germany. Olivier Perceval, former general secretary of the Action française, explains that Bainville defined France as a union of Gallo-Roman and Frankish populations. Historians Laurent Joly and William Blanc have analyzed Bainville's writings. In 1907, in the Action française magazine, Bainville wrote: "By his sheer immodesty, the Jew reveals himself as a foreigner among us." In his 1927 book Le vieil utopiste, Bainville criticized the style of the German and Jewish poet Henri Heine in a clear antisemitic diatribe. The event program includes names associated with the identitarian movement, such as François d’Orcival, former director of the far-right magazine Valeurs actuelles. In 1968, he co-founded Nouvelle Ecole with Alain de Benoist, the publication of the very nationalist Groupement de recherche et d’études pour la civilisation européenne (Grece). François d’Orcival has also been a member of the Nationalist Movement for Progress, founded in 1966 by far-right essayist Dominique Venner, a former member of the terrorist group OAS. Among the guests is Édouard Husson, a historian of Nazism and former patron of identitarian media figure Erik Tekgner. The conference is chaired by George-Henri Soutou, son of a resistance fighter and a Righteous Among the Nations — a title awarded to non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save persecuted Jews during World War II. A history professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and a specialist in the history of 20th-century international relations, Soutou did not respond to StreetPress inquiries. Nor did the Académie des sciences morales et politiques or Bernard Arnault, its most famous academician. It remains unclear whether Arnault will attend the conference. The Nouvelle revue universelle, Cercle de Flore, Les amis de Jacques Bainville, Hilaire de Crémiers, Édouard Husson, and François d’Orcival also did not respond to StreetPress requests.