The leagues in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, from Boulangisme to the Affaire Dreyfus

While the Pas-de-Calais remains totally immune to the appeal of the nationalist leagues until 1902, the rivalry between the monarchists and the republicans in the Nord presents Boulanger with a double but eventually hardly meaningful electoral success in 1888. The years 1890 witness the forces that finally accept the republic rapidly replace the conservatives, while the nationalists do not manage to take advantage of the space thus left vacant to develop, and the turmoil of the Affaire Dreyfus only leads to the gathering of a handful of little active league groups (Ligue des Patriotes, Antisemitic groups, Patrie francaise, etc.) with no real influence on the outcome of the elections and that have almost completely vanished by 1901. Conversely, the nationalists' poor organising performance and electoral results are compensated by an impressive rhetoric efficiency, fuelled by a Catholic and populist anti-Semitism close to the Abbe Gamier's National Union.