The Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire ; UMP ) is a centre-right political party in France, being one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the centre-left Socialist Party (PS). The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under President Jacques Chirac.
The former leader of the UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by Socialist François Hollande in a run-off five years later. The party enjoyed an absolute majority in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2012. The UMP is a member of the European People's Party (EPP), the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).
Since November 2012 national congress the leader of the party is Jean-François Copé, who narrowly beat François Fillon (50.03% to 49.97% among party members). Accusations of voter fraud did lead former Prime Minister Francois Fillon to "precautionary seizure" of ballots cast "to protect them from tampering or alteration".
Read more about Union For A Popular Movement: Factions, Elected Officials, Popular Support
Famous quotes containing the words union, popular and/or movement:
“Our age is pre-eminently the age of sympathy, as the eighteenth century was the age of reason. Our ideal men and women are they, whose sympathies have had the widest culture, whose aims do not end with self, whose philanthropy, though centrifugal, reaches around the globe.”
—Frances E. Willard 18391898, U.S. president of the Womens Christian Temperance Union 1879-1891, author, activist. The Womans Magazine, pp. 137-40 (January 1887)
“Fifty million Frenchmen cant be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War Iwhen it was used by U.S. soldiersor before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“Im real ambivalent about [working mothers]. Those of use who have been in the womens movement for a long time know that weve talked a good game of go out and fulfill your dreams and be everything you were meant to be. But by the same token, we want daughters-in-law who are going to stay home and raise our grandchildren.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)