The Union for French Democracy (Union pour la Démocratie Française, UDF) was a centrist political party in France. 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 UDF effectively ceased to exist by the end of 2007, and its membership and assets were transferred to its successor party, the Democratic Movement (MoDem).
The founding parties of the UDF were the Christian -democratic Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), the conservative-liberal Republican Party (PR), the social-liberal Radical Party (Rad.), the centre-left Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the centrist Perspectives and Realities Clubs (CPR). The UDF was most frequently a junior partner in coalitions with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its successor party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Prior to its dissolution, the UDF became a single entity, due to the defection of Republicans, Radicals and most Christian Democrats to the UMP and the merger of the other centrist components. The party's last leader was François Bayrou, who transferred his leadership to the MoDem party.
Read more about Union For French Democracy: Ideology and Political Position, Factions, Presidents
Famous quotes containing the words union, french and/or democracy:
“One thing that makes art different from life is that in art things have a shape ... it allows us to fix our emotions on events at the moment they occur, it permits a union of heart and mind and tongue and tear.”
—Marilyn French (b. 1929)
“He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.”
—14th-century French proverb, first recorded in English in A. Barclay, Gringore’s Castle of Labour (1506)
“In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.”
—Chris Patten (b. 1944)