Union for French Democracy

The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral entity to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to couterbalance the RPR preponderance over the right. The founder parties were the Christian-Democrat Center of Democrat Socials, the Liberal Republican Party, the Radical Party and the Social-Democratic Party (Socialists who refuse the alliance with the Communist Party). But now, the UDF is a single entity, due to the defection of the Liberals and the Radicals to President Chirac's UMP and the merger of the centrist components. Its current leader, as of 2006, is François Bayrou. The UDF has been a junior partner in the coalitions behind Prime Ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin, though it has not participated in the cabinets of either.

UDF's most marked political trait is that it is in favor of European federalism, up to the point of turning the European Union into United States of Europe. In that respect, UDF was the likely target of Jacques Chirac's Call of Cochin (1978), in which he denounced pro-European policies of "the party of the foreigners".

Since its foundation, UDF has been in an uneasy alliance with the bigger right-wing party RPR and its successor UMP, though some UDF members participated as ministers in one of left-wing François Mitterrand's cabinets (1988-1991).

Until 2002, the UDF spanned a somewhat wide ideological spectrum on the center-right. An ironic characterization of UDF's membership is that it was the union of everybody on the right that was neither far-right nor a Chirac supporter. The economic policies proposed by UDF's leaders used to range from left-wing-leaning, in favor of social justice, to strongly laissez-faire economics. Such divergences led the laissez-faire advocates of Démocratie Libérale, such as Alain Madelin, to split out of UDF on May 16, 1998. This departure followed the elections of UDF politicians for the presidence of 4 regional councils with the votes of FN elects. Indeed, the Liberals refused to condemn these alliances.

Similarly, the social policies ranged from the conservatism of the likes of Christine Boutin, famously opposed to civil unions for homosexuals, to more liberal policies she was excluded from the UDF because of her strongly conservatism and based in March, 2001 the FRS ("Forum des républicans sociaux") social conservatism which is affiliated to the UMP.

Many leaders of UDF left it to join the Union for a Presidential Majority (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle), supporting Jacques Chirac, after it was founded in 2002, leaving François Bayrou somewhat isolated. While a partner in the Raffarin cabinet, the UDF sometimes criticized the policies of the French government, yet did not wish to quit the majority coalition and enter the opposition, which is mostly left-wing.

As a result, UDF, save for Gilles de Robien, quit the cabinet in the March 31 2004 cabinet reshuffling, while still remaining in the parliamentary majority.

In 2004, the party, along with Italy's Margherita, was one of the founding members of the European Democratic Party.

Today, there is a split inside UDF elected officials, between those such as Robien and Pierre-Christophe Baguet, who favor closer ties with UMP, and those such as Bayrou that advocate independent centrist policies, with some such as Jean Dionis du Séjour trying a middle ground. [http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=389110 One reason may be that UDF's elected positions are often obtained through alliances with UMP. However, the militant base overwhelmingly favor independence. At the congress of Lyon January 28-29th 2006, 91% of the members voted to retain the independence of the UDF from the UMP and transform it into an independent centrist party. This new orientation means the UDF will be a social-liberal party aiming for a balance between socialist and conservative policies.

On May 16, 1005, François Bayrou and 10 other UDF deputies voted the motion of censure brought in by the Socialist deputies for the resignation of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's government, following the Clearstream affair. ^* (This motion had no chance to be accepted, given that UMP has an absolute majority in the Assembly.) Following this event, France's television authority then classified Bayrou and the other UDF deputies who voted the motion in the opposition for timing purposes; however, after Bayrou protested, he was classified as neither majority nor opposition.

Leaders

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