Conservative Factions in France in WWII

I briefly (very briefly) skimmed over the "France 1940- Alternatives" article on Changing the Times. The last paragraph intrigued me greatly. (Bolded text mine)

...A German advance that leaves the West in the field produces a very different world. Hitler is seen as a flash in the pan. Stalin is never seen as one of the triumphant forces of democracy. He may take Eastern Europe but he will be seen as a thug who helped Hitler. Because of the Fall of France and then Barbarossa the old conservative parties of Europe were forever tagged as collaborators while the Reds who actively worked to undermine France became social patriots because they switched lines 41-45. This has changed the politics of Europe to this day...

Even if France doesn't pull off a better defense, unlike in the article and the other ones on Changing the Times, could there have been a way for the nationalistic/conservative factions in France (and other non-Axis nations) from being seen as fascists and Nazi collaborators?

Another point I had is that De Gaulle always seemed as the type of moderate enough to both unify France and urge for a middle path during the Algerian unrest. What if he had been more friendly to conservative/right-wing groups, and rallied them for resistance against the Nazis "to protect traditional France"?

Then again, maybe he was leftist; I don't know the details.
 

Hendryk

Banned
It's a complicated question. Without the Vichy regime to taint much of the prewar right wing with the stigma of collaboration, the main French conservative party would probably have remained the PSF, but it would probably have become more moderate over time and become not all that different from the Gaullist movement in OTL. However, the right wing in general would have retained certain of its more distasteful traits, such as its antisemitism and the idea that a military coup might be a suitable solution to a political crisis.

The second part about de Gaulle, though, is more easily answered: if France holds, then he wouldn't become a major political figure to begin with. He was a mere undersecretary of defense in June 1940, and even that junior position was only gained because the military situation was getting desperate. So the butterflies from a different battle of France would likely keep him out of the limelight.
 
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