French Political Parties: RPR and UDF
Political Life: Party and Party System
8.1. Political Parties
Rassemblement pour la République (RPR)
The Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), or Rally for the Republic, was founded in 1976 by Jacques Chirac as the latest iteration of the Gaullist movement. To adapt to the changing political environment, the Gaullist movement has changed its name several times over the past thirty years. Its initial political aspirations were articulated through the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF), or Rally of the French People, founded by General de Gaulle in 1947 with the aim of seizing power and changing the Constitution of the Fourth Republic.
In 1953, de Gaulle dissolved the RPF, but it was reborn as the Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR), or Union for the New Republic, in 1958. This occurred after the General had come to power without the explicit support of any party and founded the Fifth Republic. De Gaulle refused to support the UNR and form a mass party, to avoid the influence of supporters who did not want to grant independence to Algeria.
The UNR merged with the Democratic Labor Union to form a new party, the Union des Démocrates pour la République (UDR), or Union of Democrats for the Republic, achieving 46.4% of the vote in the 1968 legislative elections. The resignation of De Gaulle in 1969 and his succession by Pompidou led to internal tensions, culminating in the 1974 presidential elections. In these elections, the UDR candidate lost to the centrist candidate Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Chirac, who supported d’Estaing, was appointed Prime Minister and took over as secretary general of the UDR.
In 1976, Chirac left the government and reorganized the Gaullist party, creating the RPR and replacing the old leadership with a new generation of leaders. Its structure is that of a mass party with predominantly leader authority. In the 1995 presidential election, two RPR candidates, party leader Chirac and former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, caused a split in the party. Balladur withdrew after the first round, and Chirac did not retaliate against his supporters, thus avoiding a schism.
Ideologically, Gaullism is a nationalist movement. Although belonging to the right, it has a populist element that led General de Gaulle to be wary of traditional social elites and to seek popular support through the direct election of the President of the Republic and the ability to call referendums. Concerning the role of government and institutions in political life, it continues the Jacobin tradition of a strong and effective state whose government may intervene in the economy and, where appropriate, carry out nationalizations.
Chirac, in his first stage, leaned toward neoliberal ideas. During his second term as Prime Minister between 1986 and 1989, he privatized firms nationalized by De Gaulle. In 1995, he returned to some features of traditional Gaullism, although he has continued the privatization policy. A major problem for the RPR today is the difficulty of accepting the process of European integration, a point that divides the party.
On May 5, 2002, Chirac won the presidency of the Republic for the third time. The multiplication of nominations and five years of cohabitation led to a protest vote that did not go to either the left or the traditional right, since both were in power. Thus, 28.4% opted for abstention and 16.9% for the extreme right. The results of the first round alarmed the Socialists, Communists, and Greens, who decided to support Chirac in the second round. This made him the most voted President of the Fifth Republic, after having achieved the least support in the first round.
Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF)
The Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF), or Union for French Democracy, was founded in 1978 by then-President Giscard d’Estaing. Its purpose was to counter the dominance of the Gaullists. It is not a single party but a confederation of smaller parties with significant independence in decision-making. The main ones are the Republican Party, Democratic Force, and the Radical Party (Valoisians).
This party group has had more similarity to the European liberal-conservative right than the RPR. It began advocating classic 19th-century liberalism and parliamentarism. In its early days, it opposed the election of the President by universal suffrage. However, they have had to accept both its continuity and their disadvantage against the dominance of the Gaullists.