History
After Madelin won the leadership of the Republican Party on 24 June 1997 with 59.9% of the vote, he renamed the organisation to Liberal Democracy and moved the party further towards economic liberalism. This followed the formation of the Democratic Force (FD) by the centrist, Christian democratic component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), leading to internal rivalry.
Liberal Democracy became independent in 1998, after a split from the UDF. The immediate cause of this departure was Liberal Democracy's refusal to condemn the election of four UDF president of Regional Councils with the votes of the National Front. However, the party had already feared that a tighter UDF would be dominated by economic centrists, preventing his free-market policies being heard.
Thus, Liberal Democracy voted on 16 May 1998 to become a separate party, with Madelin launching the 'Ten Tough Choices' programme advocating transforming the political debate in France. The economic liberals that refused to break ranks with the UDF launched the Independent Republican and Liberal Pole, which later merged with FD and the so-called 'Direct Adherents' to form the New UDF.
In the 1999 EU elections DL ran with the RPR list led by Nicolas Sarkozy. However, the pro-European tone of the RPR-DL campaign deceived and the list was placed in third, behind the eurosceptic RPF list led by Charles Pasqua and Philippe de Villiers. DL obtained four MEPs: Alain Madelin, Françoise Grossetête, Thierry Jean-Pierre and Hervé Novelli.
In the 2002 presidential election, the party split; while Alain Madelin obtained only 3.91% of the votes, party's Vice-President Jean-Pierre Raffarin endorsed incumbent Jacques Chirac. After Chirac won, he appointed Raffarin as Prime Minister on 6 May 2002. At the June 2002 legislative election, DL competed in alliance with the Rally for the Republic and other Chirac supporters as the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP). On 21 September 2002, DL voted by 15,770 votes to 2,930 to merge with the RPR and pro-Chirac elements of the UDF. The merger was completed on 17 November 2002, creating the Union for a Popular Movement.
Read more about this topic: Liberal Democracy (France)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)