[7] Shortly after his failure at Namur, Degrelle was admitted into the prestigious Catholic University of Leuven, which awarded him a diploma of candidacy in philosophy and literature on 27 July 1927.

His favorite themes were part of a global tendency in the 1930s: the fight against the corrupt established system, against parliamentary democracy supposedly infiltrated by Freemasons and the Jews."

In October 1930, Degrelle was asked by the ACJB to take over the management of Christus Rex, a small Catholic publishing house named after the popular youth cult of Christ the King.

[30] "[Degrelle] could always command a large and enthusiastic audience, for he was a handsome young man, with dreamy but searching eyes, and a voice that could be impressively thunderous or tender when he spoke (and he almost always did) about small children and his own aged mother.

He presented himself as an undaunted crusader fighting for law and order, decency and selflessness, and his attacks on party leaders who had important interests in banks and industries made a deep impression and indeed were not always without justification.

Rex, which ran on a populist, middle-class, and anti-democratic platform that united several right-wing elements such as anti-communists and war veterans,[32][33][34] won 11.5% of the votes cast and 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives.

[40] Following the election, Degrelle formed alliances with far-right francophone Belgian groups,[41] then traveled to Italy to meet representatives of the Italian National Fascist Party and received subsidies from them.

[37][38] The government banned the demonstration on 22 October and, with the erosion of Rex's alliances and image caused by their meetings with the VNV and the Nazis, the march fizzled.

[41][45] In the election, held on 11 April 1937,[46] Van Zeeland personally ran against Degrelle as the candidate of the governing center-left coalition and defeated him with 76% of the votes cast.

Degrelle additionally blamed the war on Britain, France, and "the occult forces of Freemasonry and the Jewish finance",[55] precipitating a further decay of Rex's membership and reputation.

They agreed to a pact and met again on 18 August in Brussels to sign an official agreement, sketching out the possible political future of Belgium as a state with no parties and an all-powerful royal government.

[67] On his return to Brussels, Degrelle met with Belgian notables such as Robert Capelle [nl], Leopold III's secretary, Albert Devèze, a former minister, and Maurice Lippens at his residence on the Drève de Lorraine [fr].

He relaunched Le Pays Réel on 25 August and attempted to transform Rex into a mass movement, beginning with a tour of the country in September and the appointment of Doring and newcomers Félix Francq, Rutger Simoens, and Fernand Rouleau to positions of leadership.

[71] The revitalized Le Pays Réel achieved some success over late 1940, dramatically expanding the Combat Formations,[72] which began attacking Jewish-owned businesses and engaging in street violence to weaken local governments.

[73][74] Rex remained, however, a minor entity and the disturbances caused by its street violence further angered the German military government, who were collaborating with the Belgian establishment.

[65][83] Following the January declaration, the German military administration of General Alexander von Falkenhausen remained unimpressed by Degrelle but began subsidizing Rex, appointed members to civil office, and allowed it to freely organize.

[85][86] At the same time, Degrelle began courting members of the working class and socialist leaders via Le Pays Réel to replenish Rex's membership, but again achieved little.

[81][112] In 1942, Degrelle began lobbying for the integration of Walloons into the SS,[112] and in June made a brief visit to Berlin to meet with Nazi functionaries and Rex's interim leaders.

[112] On 17 January 1943, Degrelle gave a speech at an assembly of Rexists in Brussels in which he declared that Walloons were a Germanic people forced to adopt the French language.

[123] He purchased a seized Jewish-owned perfume company,[123][124] and on 29 July 1943 launched a newspaper named L'Avenir that, devoid of the sensational tone and polemics of Le Pays Réel, found immediate financial success.

[126] In October and again in November, Degrelle met with Berger, and at his direction wrote to Hitler to denounce the military administration in Belgium and request an SS-run government, only a few days after sending a letter of praise to Reeder.

He wrote to Himmler to request the retaliatory killing of 100 Belgian civilians[136] and was ignored, but on 21 July Rexists attached to the Sicherheitspolizei murdered three hostages near Bouillon.

[141] In November 1944, Degrelle was given the title "Popular Leader (Volksführer) of the Walloons" by Hitler, and in December was promised control of any Belgian territory that the German armed forces retook in the upcoming Ardennes offensive.

[161] He openly associated with other Nazi exiles such as Otto Skorzeny,[163][164] and wore his SS uniform to his daughter's wedding in 1969, an event reported widely in the Spanish press.

[162] On 3 December 1964, Belgium passed a law,[165] named the Lex Degrelliana,[166][167] that extended the statute of limitations for death sentences issued for offenses against the Belgian state committed between 1940 and 1945 from 20 years to 30.

[168] By the 1980s, Degrelle was living comfortably, having profited from running a construction company that helped build American airbases in Spain, and under his original name.

[175] In August, Friedman was introduced by Jewish community leaders Max Mazín and Alberto Benasuly to Catalan lawyer Jorge Trías for legal counsel and was assured of the support of Israel's then-ambassador to Spain, Shlomo Ben Ami.

[80][182][183] Beginning in 1949,[150][184] Degrelle began to publish books and give interviews in which he praised the Nazis,[162] denied the Holocaust,[185] attempted to distort the historical record,[151][185] and aggrandize himself.

[186] Degrelle's work formed a large amount of the 20th century, French-language historiography of Belgium during the war until it was refuted by Belgian historian Albert de Jonghe [nl] in the 1970s.

[192] Degrelle also found friends in the post-Francoist People's Alliance (Alianza Popular, AP),[173] and in Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the far-right National Front party in France,[182][193] and Michael Kühnen, a leader of the German neo-Nazi movement of the later 20th century.