Jules Guérin

Who was Jules Guérin?

Jules Guérin was a French journalist and antisemitic activist. He founded and led the Ligue Antisemitique, an organisation similar to the Ligue des Patriotes, and edited the French weekly L'Antijuif.

The Ligue was involved in many antisemitic and anti-Dreyfus protests during the Dreyfus Affair. After failing to gain financial backing from Radical and Socialist politicians for his anti-Semitic league and newspaper, he turned to royalists and announced himself an opponent of the Republican government. Guérin was financially supported by Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, the Orleanist claimant to the French throne, from 1898 to 1903.

In 1899 Guérin was involved in the activities of Paul Déroulède, who attempted to organise a coup-d'etat. He was eventually indicted, with Déroulède and his Ligue des Patriotes for conspiring against the State. Guérin refused to be taken and fortified his house in the Rue Chabrol with a group of armed supporters. After 23 days of siege, he eventually gave himself up. The term "Fort Chabrol" for a siege situation is still in use in some French-speaking countries, even among law enforcement agencies.