Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy Union pour la démocratie française | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | UDF |
Leaders | |
Founder | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
Founded |
|
Dissolved | 30 November 2007[a] | (defunct)
Merger of | |
Succeeded by | |
Headquarters | UDF 133 bis, rue de l'Université 75007 Paris |
ALDE (2004–07) | |
Colours | |
Website | |
www.udf.org (inactive) | |
The Union for French Democracy (French: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre-right political party in France. The UDF was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the political right in France. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's 1976 book, Démocratie française.
The founding parties of the UDF were Giscard's Republican Party (PR), the Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), the Radical Party (Rad.), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Perspectives and Realities Clubs (CPR). The UDF was most frequently a junior partner in coalitions with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its successor party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Prior to its dissolution, the UDF became a single entity, due to the defection of Republicans, Radicals and most Christian Democrats to the UMP and the merger of the other centrist components. The UDF effectively ceased to exist by the end of 2007, and its membership and assets were transferred to its successor party, the Democratic Movement (MoDem). The UDF's final leader was François Bayrou, who transferred his leadership to MoDem.
History
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Foundation and early years
In 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected president of France. Two years later, his Gaullist prime minister, Jacques Chirac, resigned and created the Rally for the Republic (RPR) in order to restore the Gaullist domination over the republican institutions. Formally, this party stood in the right-wing parliamentary majority, but it criticised with virulence the policies of the executive duo composed of President Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Raymond Barre.
During campaigning for the 1978 legislative election, in his Verdun-sur-le-Doubs speech, President Giscard d'Estaing noted that the political leanings of the French people were divided among four groups: the Communists (PCF), the Socialists (PS), the Neo-Gaullists (RPR) and his own followers. He therefore sought to formally organise a political grouping which would represent the position of his followers. Consequently, the UDF confederation was born.
Contrary to the Neo-Gaullists, the Giscardian UDF advocated less
After the right (the RPR and UDF) won the 1978 legislative election and the subsequent focus of both groups towards the 1981 presidential campaign, the relations between the two parties of the parliamentary majority deteriorated. Indeed, RPR leader Jacques Chirac criticized the market-oriented and pro-European policy of the executive duo. During the 1979 European electoral campaign, Chirac published the Call of Cochin where the UDF was accused of being "the foreign party". As the UDF list, led by Simone Veil, obtained a very good result compared with RPR's score, the quarrels between the two parties and the rivalry between Giscard d'Estaing and Chirac contributed, in 1981, to the defeat of the incumbent UDF president who ran for a second term.
The Eighties
After the election of François Mitterrand as president, the two centre-right parliamentary parties reconciled. Gradually, the RPR abandoned Gaullist doctrine and joined the market-oriented and pro-European positions of the UDF. Although, they presented a common list at the 1984 European Parliament election, their leaders Chirac and Barre competed for the leadership of the French centre-right. Focused on winning the 1986 legislative election, Chirac, unlike Barre, accepted the principle of "cohabitation" with President Mitterrand. Furthermore, some UDF politicians (notably from the Republican Party) covertly supported Chirac. Consequently, he became Prime Minister, from 1986 to 1988, and the UDF played a supporting role in his cabinet and in the parliamentary majority.
Barre was a candidate in the
For Giscard d'Estaing, Barre's failure to strengthen the UDF, allowed him retake the leadership of the UDF. However, his authority, and that of the other right-wing leaders (Chirac, Barre etc.) was contested by a new generation of politicians called the "renovation men", who accused the old guard leadership of bearing responsibility for the electoral defeats of the right.
The Nineties
In 1991, the dismissal of Rocard caused the departure of the centrist ministers from the government. All of the UDF and the RPR were allied in opposition to the Socialist power which was weakened by the economic crisis, scandals, and internal quarrels. The RPR/UDF coalition named "
During the
After Chirac's election as president of France, some UDF ministers were dismissed as a result of their support for Balladur. Nevertheless, in Alain Juppé's cabinet, the UDF was given several ministries including Foreign Affairs with Hervé de Charette (PPDF), Defense with Charles Millon (PR), Economy and Finances with Alain Madelin (PR), Industry with Yves Galland (Rad), Education with François Bayrou (CDS/FD), Commerce with Jean-Pierre Raffarin (PR), Labour with Jacques Barrot (CDS/FD), Agriculture with Philippe Vasseur (CDS/FD), Culture with Philippe Douste-Blazy (CDS/FD), Economic Development with Jean Arthuis (PR) and Reform and Decentralization with Claude Goasguen (PR).
After the right-wing defeat in the
New UDF
This led to a re-organisation of UDF into the New UDF (Nouvelle UDF). The new alliance was launched as a single party with the merger of FD and the
The former leader of Democratic Force,
Post-election, the UDF joined the victorious centre-right grouping as a partner in the cabinet of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Despite this, the UDF sometimes criticised the policies of the French government, although it did not wish to quit the majority coalition and enter the opposition, which was made up mostly of centre-left and left-wing parties. Subsequently, the UDF quit the cabinet (except for Gilles de Robien), after a cabinet reshuffle on 31 March 2004, but still decided to remain in the parliamentary majority coalition.
In 2004, the party, along with Italy's Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, was one of the founding members of the European Democratic Party, intended to be home to all those Christian democrats and centrists who were disillusioned with the new course of the European People's Party, which had welcomed the Rally for the Republic and later the UMP. With the exit of the most conservative, Christian-democratic and conservative-liberal components of the UDF in 1998 and 2002, the UDF was now more of a centrist party with socially liberal tendencies.
There developed a split among UDF elected officials, between those such as Gilles de Robien and Pierre-Christophe Baguet, who favored closer ties with the UMP, and those such as François Bayrou who advocate independent centrist policies, while others such as Jean Dionis du Séjour tried steering for a middle course.[3] The most likely reason for many of the UDF's elected officials favouring close ties with the UMP was that most of the UDF's elected positions are obtained through cooperative alliances with UMP. However, the party's base overwhelmingly favored independence. At the congress of Lyon, on 28–29 January 2006, 91% of the members voted to retain the independence of the UDF from the UMP and transform it into an independent centrist party. This outcome meant that the orientation of the evolving UDF would be that of a social-liberal party aiming for a balance between social-democratic and conservative policies.
Democratic Movement
On 16 May 2006, François Bayrou and his 10 other UDF deputies voted for the motion of censure brought by the Socialist deputies calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's government, following the Clearstream affair.[4] This motion had no chance of being passed, given that UMP had an absolute majority in the Assembly. Following this event, France's television authority then classified Bayrou and the other UDF deputies who had voted for the motion as being in the opposition for time allocation purposes; however, after Bayrou protested, he was classified as neither majority nor opposition.
On 25 April 2007, François Bayrou announced that he would be submitting a plan to a vote by UDF members to create a new
On 30 November 2007, the UDF effectively ceased to exist, and was fully integrated within the Democratic Movement, headed by François Bayrou.[5]
Ideology, positions, platform
The UDF was a party of the
A pro-European party,[16] the UDF's most marked political trait was support for European integration, up to the point of turning the European Union into a federal United States of Europe. In that respect, UDF was the likely target of Chirac's Call of Cochin (1978), in which he denounced the pro-European policies of "the party of the foreigners".
Until 2002, the UDF spanned a somewhat wide ideological spectrum on the centre-right. A
Similarly, the social policies ranged from the
During the 2007 presidential electoral campaign, François Bayrou presented himself as a centrist and a social-liberal,[21] (he even opened the door to gay adoptions[22]) proclaiming that if elected, he would "govern beyond the left-right divide".[23] He won 18.6% of the vote, but this was not enough for him to reach the second round.
Factions
- Bayrouistes, those who wanted the UDF to be independent from UMP: Marielle de Sarnez, Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Thierry Cornillet, Gilles Artigues, Bernard Bosson, Anne-Marie Comparini, Charles de Courson, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, Jean Lassalle, Maurice Leroy, Hervé Morin, Rudy Salles, Gérard Vignoble, Nicolas Perruchot, Jean-Luc Préel, François Rochebloine, François Sauvadet
- Society in Movement, those who wanted close ties with UMP: Gilles de Robien, Olivier Jardé, Jean-Pierre Abelin, Pierre-Christophe Baguet,[24] Jean Dionis du Séjour, Francis Hillmeyer, Michel Hunault, Stéphane Demilly, Yvan Lachaud, André Santini, Francis Vercamer, Claude Leteurtre, Rodolphe Thomas
On 10 May 2007, when Bayrou launched his new
Composition
Name | Ideology | Position | Leader | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican (1978-1998) | Conservative liberalism | Centre-right | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Jean-Pierre Soisson Jacques Blanc Gérard Longuet François Léotard | |
PSD (1978-1995) | Social liberalism | Centre | Max Lejeune André Santini | |
CDS (1978-1995) | Christian democracy Centrism |
Centre | Jean Lecanuet François Bayrou | |
Radical (1978-2002) | Liberalism | Centre-right | Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber Didier Bariani André Rossinot Yves Galland Thierry Cornillet François Loos | |
PPDF (1995-2002) | Liberal conservatism | Centre-right | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Hervé de Charette | |
Democratic Force (1995-1998) | Centrism Christian democracy Social liberalism |
Centre | François Bayrou | |
Liberal Democracy (1997-1998) | Conservative liberalism | Centre-right | Alain Madelin | |
PRIL (1997-1998) | Liberalism | Centre-right | François Léotard |
Presidents
- Jean Lecanuet (1978–1988)
- Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1988–1996)
- François Léotard (1996–1998)
- François Bayrou (1998–2007)
Election results
Presidential elections
Election | Candidate | First round | Second round | Result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
1981 | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | 8,222,432 | 28.32% | 14,642,306 | 48.24% | Lost |
1988 | Raymond Barre | 5,031,849 | 16.55% | - | - | Lost |
2002 | François Bayrou | 1,949,170 | 6.84% | - | - | Lost |
Legislative elections
Year | Leader | First round | Second round | Seats in the National Assembly |
Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of votes | Percentage of votes | Number of votes | Percentage of votes | ||||
1978 | Jean Lecanuet (CDS) | 6,128,849 | 21.45 | 5,907,603 | 23.18 | 121 / 488
|
Part of "Presidential Majority" (with RPR) |
1981 | Jean-Claude Gaudin (PR) | 4,827,437 | 19.20 | 3,489,363 | 18.68 | 62 / 491
|
Part of "Union for a New Majority" (with RPR) |
1986 | Jean-Claude Gaudin (PR) | 6,008,612 (RPR-UDF joint lists) 2,330,167 (separate UDF lists) |
21.44 8.31 |
— | 127 / 573
|
Part of "RPR-UDF Union" | |
1988 | Jean-Claude Gaudin (PR) | 4,519,459 | 18.50 | 4,299,370 | 21.18 | 129 / 575
|
Part of "Union of Rally and Centre" (with RPR) |
1993 | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (PR) | 4,731,013 | 18.71 | 5,178,039 | 26.14 | 207 / 577
|
Part of "Union for France" (with RPR) |
1997 | François Léotard (PR) | 3,617,440 | 14.22 | 5,284,203 | 20.07 | 112 / 577
|
Part of "Presidential Majority" (with RPR) |
2002 | François Bayrou | 1,226,462 | 4.86 | 832,785 | 3.92 | 29 / 577
|
Part of "Presidential Majority" (with UMP) |
European elections
Election year | Leader | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall seats won | Group |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Simone Veil | 5,588,851 | 27.61 (#1) | 25 / 81
|
EPP (8)
|
1984 | Simone Veil | 8,683,596 (UDF-RPR joint lists) | 43.03 (#1; UDF+RPR) | 22 / 81
|
EPP (9); EDA (1)
|
1989 | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (PR) | 5,242,038 (UDF-RPR joint lists) | 28.88 (#1; UDF+RPR) | 12 / 81
|
EPP (1)
|
1994 | Dominique Baudis (CDS) | 4,985,574 (UDF-RPR joint lists) | 25.58 (#1; UDF+RPR) | 14 / 87
|
ELDR (1)
|
1999 | François Bayrou | 1,638,680 | 9.28 (#5) | 9 / 87
|
EPP-ED
|
2004 | François Bayrou | 2,053,446 | 11.96 (#3) | 11 / 78
|
ALDE
|
Literature
- Massart, Alexis (2004). Steven Van Hecke; Emmanuel Gerard (eds.). The Impossible Resurrection: Christian Democracy in France. Leuven University Press. pp. 197–215. )
Notes
- ^ MoDem assumed UDF's political activity on 1 December 2007 and the latter is no longer active, but its brand remains in the electoral register and the party has not been legally dissolved.
References
- ISBN 978-3-642-19414-6.
- ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2007). "France". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 28 April 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
- ^ France politique - courants UDF.
- ^ ANALYSE DU SCRUTIN N° 978 - Séance du 16 mai 2006.
- ^ M. Bayrou enterre l'UDF et célèbre la naissance du MoDem, Le Monde, 1 December 2007
- ISBN 978-0-8156-3174-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4441-1887-2.
- ISBN 978-1-134-86111-8.
- ISBN 978-1-317-34337-0.
- ^ Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-6120-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-5876-9.
- ISBN 9789058673770.
- ^ Startin, Nick (2005), "Maastricht, Amsterdam and beyond: The troubled evolution of the French right", French Relations with the European Union, Routledge, p. 64
- ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-317-93656-5.
- ISBN 978-1-135-25578-7.
- ISBN 978-0-313-39181-1.
- ISBN 9783531150765.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-6120-2.
- ^ The third man, The Economist, 1 March 2007.
- ^ Interview with Bayrou, Corriere della Sera, 16 March 2007.
- ^ Jacques Chirac's poisoned legacy, The Economist, 16 March 2007, p. 17.
- ^ Pierre-Christophe Baguet was expelled from the UDF on 10 October 2006 - Le député Baguet exclu du groupe UDF[permanent dead link] (in French)
- ^ "Union pour la Démocratie Française UDF". france-politique.fr. Retrieved 18 January 2020.