Union of Democrats for the Republic

The Union for the Defence of the Republic (French: Union pour la défense de la République), after 1968 renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic (French: Union des Démocrates pour la République), commonly abbreviated UDR, was a Gaullist[8][9] political party of France that existed from 1968 to 1976.

Union of Democrats for the Republic Union des Démocrates pour la République
Leader	Charles de Gaulle Georges Pompidou Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chirac
Founded	1967
Dissolved	1976
Preceded by	Union for the New Republic
Succeeded by	Rally for the Republic
Headquarters	123 rue de Lille, Paris 7th
Newspaper	La Lettre de la nation
Ideology	Gaullism Paternalistic conservatism[1] Liberal conservatism[2] Pro-Europeanism[3][4] (soft)[5]
Political position	Right-wing[6][7]
European Parliament group	European Democratic Union (1967–73) European Progressive Democrats (1973–76)
Colors	Orange (official)   Blue (costumary)
Politics of France Political parties Elections

The UDR was the successor to Charles de Gaulle's earlier party, the Rally of the French People, and was organised in 1958, along with the founding of the Fifth Republic as the Union for the New Republic (UNR), and in 1962 merged with the Democratic Union of Labour, a left-Gaullist group. In 1967 it was joined by some Christian Democrats to form the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic, later dropping the 'Fifth'. After the May 1968 crisis, it formed a right-wing coalition named Union for the Defense of the Republic (UDR); it was subsequently renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic, retaining the abbreviation UDR, in October 1968.

Under de Gaulle's successor Georges Pompidou it promoted the Gaullist movement. It dissolved in 1976, and its successor was the Rally for the Republic (RPR) founded by Jacques Chirac.[10][11]

Secretaries-general

• 1968–71: Robert Poujade
• 1971–72: René Tomasini
• 1972–73: Alain Peyrefitte
• 1973–74: Alexandre Sanguinetti
• 1974–75: Jacques Chirac
• 1975–76: André Bord
• 1976: Yves Guéna

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election year	Candidate	1st round			2nd round
		Votes	%	Rank	Votes	%	Rank
1969	Georges Pompidou	10,051,783	44.5	Ballotage	11,064,371	58.2	Won
1974	Jacques Chaban-Delmas	3,857,728	15.1	Lost	N/A

Legislative elections

Election year	1st round		2nd round		Seats	+/−	Rank (seats)	Government
	Votes	%	Votes	%
1967	8,448,082	37.7	7,972,908	42.6	293 / 487	31	1st	Presidential majority
1968	9,667,532	43.6	6,762,170	46.4	396 / 487	103	1st	Presidential majority
1973	8,242,661	34.6	10,701,135	45.6	314 / 488	82	1st	Presidential majority

See also

• Gaullist Party

References

1. Lind, Michael (2013). Simon and Schuster (ed.). Up from Conservatism. p. 47. ISBN 9781476761152.
2. Fysh, Peter (1997). A&C Black (ed.). Chapter 3: Gaullism and liberalism. Political Ideologies in Contemporary France. ISBN 9781855672383.
3. Tchoubarian, Alexander (2014). Routledge (ed.). The European Idea in History in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A View From Moscow. p. 166. ISBN 9781135234010.
4. Rusi, Alpo M. (1991). Springer (ed.). After the Cold War: Europe's New Political Architecture. Springer. p. 34.
5. Gaffney, John (2002). Routledge (ed.). Political Parties and the European Union. p. 87. ISBN 9781134876167.
6. Goodliffe, Gabriel (2012), The Resugence of the Radical Right in France: From Boulangisme to the Front National, Cambridge University Press, p. 250
7. Blondel, Jean (1974), Contemporary France: Politics, Society and Institutions, Methuen & Co, pp. 24–25
8. Alexandra Hughes; Alex Hughes; Keith A Reader; Keith Reader (11 March 2002). Encyclopaedia of Contemporary French Culture. Routledge. p. 367. ISBN 978-1-134-78865-1.
9. D. L. Hanley; Miss A P Kerr; N. H. Waites (17 August 2005). Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945. Routledge. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-134-97423-8.
10. Frank L. Wilson, "Gaullism without de Gaulle," Western Political Quarterly (1973) 26#3 pp. 485-506 in JSTOR
11. Senate Groups since 1959

Further reading

• Berstein, Serge & Jean-Pierre Rioux (2000). The Pompidou Years, 1969-1974. Cambridge UP. ISBN 9780521580618.S, major scholarly history of France
• Hibbs, Douglas A., and Nicholas Vasilatos. "Economics and Politics in France: Economic Performance and Mass Political Support for Presidents Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing." European Journal of Political Research (1981) 9#2 pp: 133-145. online
• Wilson, Frank L. "Gaullism without de Gaulle," Western Political Quarterly (1973) 26#3 pp. 485–506 in JSTOR