UNION FOR FRENCH DEMOCRACY

The 'Union for French Democracy' (''Union pour la Démocratie Française'', UDF) is a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's 1976 book, ''French Democracy''.
The founding parties were the Christian-democratic Democratic and Social Centre, the conservative-liberal Republican Party, the liberal Radical Party, the centre-left Social Democratic Party and the centrist Perspectives and Realities Clubs. Now, the UDF is a single entity, due to the defection of Republicans, Radicals and most Christian Democrats to President Jacques Chirac's UMP and the merger of the other centrist components.
Its current leader, as of 2007, is François Bayrou. The UDF has been a junior partner in the coalitions behind Prime Ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin, though it has not participated in the cabinets of either, except Gilles de Robien's controversial participation as Education minister.

Contents

History

The Eighties

The Nineties

New UDF

Democratic Movement

Ideology and political position

Factions

Presidents

External link

References

History

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 criticized with virulence the policies of the executive duo composed of President Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Raymond Barre.
During the 1978 legislative electoral campaign, in his Verdun-sur-le-Doubs's speech, President Giscard d'Estaing noted the French people was shared in four equivalent political leanings: the Communists (PCF), the Socialists (PS), the Neo-Gaullists (RPR) and his followers. He organized they in a confederation: the UDF was born.
Contrary to the Neo-Gaullists, the Giscardian UDF advocated a less control of the state in economy, the decentralization in aid of the local authorities, and the build of a federal Europe. According to the historian René Rémond, the UDF descended from the Orleanist tradition of the right whereas the RPR was a reincarnation of the Bonapartist tradition which privileges the national independance by the advent of a strong state.
After the right won the 1978 legislative election and with a view to the 1981 presidential campaign, the relations between the two parties of the parliamentary majority deteriorated. Indeed, RPR leader Jacques Chirac's criticism of the market-oriented and pro-European policy of the executive duo (in the Call of Cochin, the UDF was accused of being "the foreign party") contributed to the defeat of the incumbent president who run for a second term.

The Eighties

After François Mitterrand's election, the two right-wing parliamentary parties reconciled. Little by little, the RPR abandoned Gaullist doctrine and joined the market-oriented and pro-European positions of the UDF. If they presented a common list at the 1984 European Parliament election, their leaders Chirac and Barre competed for leadership of the right wing. 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 1988 presidential election, yet, depite his popularity, he was not supported by all UDF personalities. Giscard d'Estaing himself refused to choose clearly and publicly between his two former Prime Ministers. Eliminated in the first round, Barre called to vote for Chirac in the second round, but this one was defeated by Mitterrand. After the re-election of François Mitterrand, some UDF members participated as ministers in the left-wing Michel Rocard's cabinets. Others created a new parliamentary group, the Centrist Union, which occasionally voted with the Socialist Party or with the RPR.
For Giscard d'Estaing, the failure of Barre permitted to take back the UDF leadership. However, his authority, and that of the other right-wing leaders (Chirac, Barre...) was contested by a new generation of politicians called the "renovation men", who accused they to be responsible of the electoral defeats of the right.

The Nineties

In 1991, the dismissal of Rocard caused the departure of the centerist ministers from the government. All the UDF and the RPR were allied in the opposition to the Socialist power which was weakent by the economic crisis, scandals, and internal quarrels. The RPR/UDF coalition named "Union for France" comfortably won the 1993 legislative election. The new Neo-Gaullist Prime Minister Edouard Balladur nominated a lot of UDF members in his cabinet: François Léotard (PR) was minister of Defense, Gerard Longuet (PR) of Industry, Pierre Méhaignerie (CDS) of Justice, François Bayrou (CDS) of Education, Simone Veil (PR) of Health and Social Affairs, Alain Madelin (PR) of Commerce, Bernard Bosson (CDS) of Transports, Jean Puech (CDS) of Agriculture, André Rossinot (Rad) of Sevil Service and Hervé de Charette (CPR) of Housing. In return, most UDF ministers and leaders supported the candidacy of Eduard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election. However, Giscard d'Estaing, Perspectives and Realities clubs, and other leaders like Alain Madelin supported Chirac.
When Chirac was elected President of France, some UDF ministers were dismissed due to their support for Balladur. Nevertheless, in Alain Juppé's cabinet, UDF controlled some ministers including Foreign Affairs with Hervé de Charette (CPR), Defense with Charles Millon (PR), Economy and Finances with Alain Madelin (PR), Industry 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). In 1996, the leadership of UDF passed from Giscard d'Estaing to François Léotard (PR).
After the right-wing defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the UDF confederation faced a major crisis. While the centrist components had merged into Democratic Force, led by François Bayrou, the liberal-conservatives tried to surmount the ''chiraquiens''/''balladuriens'' fracture. The Republican Party was joined by some politicians from the Popular Party for French Democracy, like Jean Pierre Raffarin (a former Republican), and renamed Liberal Democracy (DL). It started to reassert its autonomy and finally broke ranks in 1998 with the UDF. The event which triggered the split was the election of UDF politicians at the head of four regional councils, who won with support from the National Front. DL refused to condemn it, while the centrists did.

New UDF

This led to a re-organization of UDF into the New UDF (''Nouvelle UDF''). Indeed, it was launched as a single party with the merger of Democratic Force (born after the union of the Democratic and Social Centre and of the Social Democratic Party in 1995) and the Republican Independent and Liberal Pole (formed in 1998 by those Liberals who refused to leave UDF), in the New UDF, organized as a single party. The Radical Party and the Popular Party for French Democracy (successor of the Perspectives and Realities Clubs in 1995) remained as autonomous entities within the new party.
The former leader of Democratic Force, François Bayrou became the natural leader of the New UDF. He conceived of it as the embryo of a future centrist party which would include politicians from both the left and right. Bayrou ran for president in the 2002 presidential election, but some UDF leaders supported Chirac. Then, Bayrou refused Chirac's invitation to join the big tent right-wing party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Other UDF members, led by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Jacques Barrot and Pierre Méhaignerie, joined the UMP , leaving Bayrou somewhat isolated.
While a partner in the Jean-Pierre Raffarin cabinet, the UDF sometimes criticized the policies of the French government, yet did not wish to quit the majority coalition and enter the opposition, which is mostly left-wing. As a result, the UDF, save for Gilles de Robien, quit the cabinet in the 31 March 2004 cabinet reshuffling, while still remaining in the parliamentary majority.
In 2004, the party, along with Italy's Democracy is Freedom – 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, then, the UMP. It is also true that, after the exit of the most conservative, Christian-democratic and conservative-liberal components in 1998 and 2002, UDF became more of a centrist party with socially liberal tendencies.
Today, there is a split among UDF elected officials, between those such as Gilles de Robien and Pierre-Christophe Baguet, who favor closer ties with the UMP, and those such as François Bayrou who advocate independent centrist policies, while others such as Jean Dionis du Séjour are trying for a middle ground^[1]. One reason may be that UDF's elected positions are often obtained through alliances with UMP. However, the party's base overwhelmingly favors independence. At the congress of Lyon, January 28-29th 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 new orientation means the UDF will be a social liberal party aiming for a balance between social-democratic and conservative policies.

Democratic Movement

On 16 May 2006, François Bayrou and 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 ^[2]. 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 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 of UDF members to create a new Democratic Movement, which was finally launched on 10 May. However, most of the UDF's deputies protested and formed the New Centre (to support Nicolas Sarkozy) In the subsequent legislative elections held in June, the MoDem won only 3 seats (but over 7%), and its New Centre rivals won 22 seats (but only 2%)

Ideology and political position

UDF's most marked political trait is that it is in favor of European federalism, up to the point of turning the European Union into United States of Europe. In that respect, UDF was the likely target of Chirac's Call of Cochin (1978), in which he denounced pro-European policies of "the party of the foreigners".
Until 2002, the UDF spanned a somewhat wide ideological spectrum on the center-right. A tongue-in-cheek characterization of UDF's membership is that it was the union of everybody on the right that was neither far-right nor a Chirac supporter. However, the UDF suffered for its lack of cohesion, in contrast to the RPR. The economic policies proposed by UDF's leaders ranged from left-leaning, in favor of social justice, to strongly laissez-faire economics. Such divergences led the laissez-faire advocates of
Liberal Democracy, such as Alain Madelin, to split out of UDF on 16 May 1998. This departure followed the elections of UDF politicians for the presidents of 4 regional councils with the votes of FN elects. Indeed, the Liberals refused to condemn these alliances.
Similarly, the social policies ranged from the conservatism of the likes of Christine Boutin, famously opposed to civil unions for homosexuals, to more socially liberal policies. Boutin would be excluded from the UDF because of her strong social conservatism; in March 2001 she formed the Forum of Social Republicans, now affiliated to the UMP.
During 2007 presidential electoral campaign, François Bayrou presents himself as a centrist and a social liberal^[3] (he even opened the door to gay adoptions^[4]) and says that, if elected, he will "govern beyond the left-right divide"^[5].

Factions

★ 'Bayrouistes', those who want 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 want close ties with UMP: Gilles de Robien, Olivier Jardé, Jean-Pierre Abelin, Pierre-Christophe Baguet^[6], 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 Democratic Movement, only 6 deputies out of 29 (Pierre-Cristophe Baguet is not counted as he was expelled from the party on 10 October 2006) followed him (Gilles Artigues, Anne-Marie Comparini, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, Jean Lassalle, Gérard Vignoble and he himself^[7]). The others, comprising the members of Society in Movement and also Hervé Morin, Jean-Louis Bourlanges and other Bayrou's supporters until then, joined the presidential majority coalition in support of the new President Nicolas Sarkozy and formed a new "centrist pole" within it, the New Centre led by Hervé Morin .

Presidents

★ Jean Lecanuet (1978–1988)

★ Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1988–1996)

★ François Léotard (1996–1998)

★ François Bayrou (1998–...)

External link

★ Official web site

References

1. France politique - courants UDF.
2. ANALYSE DU SCRUTIN N° 978 - Séance du 16 mai 2006.
3. The third man, ''The Economist'', March 1st, 2007.
4. Interview with Bayrou, ''Corriere della Sera'', March 16th, 2007.
5. Jacques Chirac's poisoned legacy, ''The Economist'', March 16th, 2007, p. 17.
6. Pierre-Christophe Baguet was expelled from the UDF on October 10, 2006 - Le député Baguet exclu du groupe UDF
7. France politique - chronologie UDF