UDF and RPR were the two main centre-right parties in

France between the mid 1970s and 1981. Those two parties
tried to replace the gap left by a declining Gaullist party in
the then French political scene. The common feature that
both parties were sharing was their hopes based on the
personalities of the two leaders, Jacques Chirac for RPR and
Valery Giscard D’ Estaing for UDF. This essay explains the
reasons that led to the creation of those two parties and
analyses to what the extent those two parties were
successful between the mid 1970s and 1981.

Le Rassemblement pour la republique

In the presidential elections of 1974 Jacques Chirac was one

of the main allies of Giscard D’Estaing candidature. Giscard
prized Chirac’s support by offering him the position of Prime
Minister. However, in August 1976 Chirac decides to resign
from his position of Prime Minister and to move forward
towards a more leading position in French political scene.
Chirac then decided to make true his ambition through the
renewal of UDR, the party of De Gaulle. In September 1976
Chirac let the people know about his concerns on the
reforms urgently needed in the UDR. In December of the
same year, a meeting was held in Paris which resulted in
Chirac’s establishment as leader of the Gaullist party and as
the one who changed its name to Rassemblement pour la
Republique (Addinal,1992, 36;Bell, 1999,50).The creation of
RPR was the first demonstration of the political abilities of
Chirac; his assignment as Prime Minister in the Giscard
Government gave him the ability to overwhelm the
opposition of the barons of the UDR towards his face and to
be present as the absent leader of the Gaullist party. The
rename of UDR to RPR gave him an established party, but at
the same time was demonstrated to the rest of French right
that something had changed.

RDR was a creation of Chirac in order to claim the heritage

of De Gaulle; it was a successful attempt to enrich his
ambitions with a political background and to obtain an
electoral base which could be enlarged with the right
choices. Chirac has always been a very intelligent politician,
who succeeded to shift from one point to another and to set
up himself as one of the main protagonists in the French
political life.

L’Union pour la Democratie Française

UDF was created six weeks before the parliamentary

elections of 1978. Its name was given from an essay of
Giscard during his presidency. It was a coalition of all the
non-Gaullist right-centre parties which after fifteen years of
opposition to the Gaullism had succeeded to reach the
government through the victory of Giscard on 1974. UDF
was based on three different small non-Gaullist right-centre
parties. One of the parts of the coalition was Giscard’s
party, the Republican Party which was a result of the re-
foundation of the Federation Nationale des Republicains
Independants of 1966. The second part of the coalition, the
Centre des Democrats Sociaux, was founded in 1976, and
was the successor of the Christian Democrat Movement. The
third party of the coalition was the Radical Party that existed
since 1972 and was expressed by the radical elements of
right wing. The creation of these parties was the result of De
Gaulle’s incapability to express the ideas of the whole
centre-right; especially the anti-Europeanism policy of De
Gaulle was not accepted by those parties. UDF was a
coalition based on opposition to the Gaullism and was
serving the electoral goals of the parties in the coalition. UDF
was a coalition and this prevented a homogeneous policy to
be expressed. Evans, 1997, pp 47-48; Bells, 1999.pp84:
Cole, 1996, 106-7).

The creation of UDF was a result of the opportunity that

appeared with Giscard’s presidency in 1974 to non-Gaullist
parties in order to dominate the French centre-right political
scene. In addition, all the non-Gaullist right-centre parties
concluded that being apart could not challenge the Gaullist
movement and only united could present a considerable
opposition. Moreover, they believed that a centre party
without any connection with the Gaullism will be successful
and able to take advantage of the divided left.

Success

The measure that calculates the success of a party is the

level of voters’ acceptance in elections. The two parties
confront each other, in the period which we examined, twice
for parliamentary elections 1978 and 1981 and once for
presidential election in 1981.

Parliamentary elections of 1978

The Parliamentary elections of 1978 took place on 12th and

19th March. As mentioned before, they were the reason for
UDF formation and the first time that the two parties would
count their power. UDF was voted by 6 million people
representing 21.4% of the total amount of votes and
obtaining 138 seats in the Parliament. On the other hand,
RPR was voted by 6.3 million voters representing a 22.5% of
the total and achieving 150 seats in Parliament. In this first
challenge the numbers indicated that the RPR showed
slightly stronger than the UDF. Two incidents must be
mentioned about these elections. In a first place, the speech
of Giscard at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs. At this speech he
announced to everyone that even if he would loose he had
no intention to resign, which resulted in the lack of the
motive of change from the left voters. In addition, it brought
up the voting behaviour of centre-right. In Parliamentary
elections, the ideological border is not really noticeable and
voters tend to vote according to the personality and the
status of the candidate (Frears, 1991, pp177-79).

The first appearance of the UDF in the political arena was

quite successful if taken into account that it was the first
time that the Party was voted, when it was created six weeks
before the elections. However, the percentage obtained was
not established as the dominant centre-right party. The first
appearance of the RPR it was as well quite successful and
obtained a slightly higher percentage than UDF; it succeeded
to remain the voting base of UDR. The elections of 1978 did
not make anything very clear and the two parties were
expecting the presidential elections of 1981 to sort out their
differences.

Presidential elections of 1981

The presidential elections in 1981 were the moment when

Giscard and Chirac faced each other. The RPR supported
Jacques Chirac but two other Gaullist decided to place their
candidature: Michel Debre, former prime minister of De
Gaulle and Marie France Garaud, advisor of Chirac during the
time when he was Prime Minister in Giscard’s government. In
the first ballot Giscard took 8.2 million votes representing
28.2% of the total. On the other hand, Chirac was voted by
5.2 million people representing an 18%.

Debre was voted by 500.000 people taking 1.7% and Garaud

was voted by 400.00 representing 1.3%. Giscard was the
absolute winner between the two of them; however, the 18%
that Chirac obtained was satisfactory enough to establish
him as the continuer of the Gaullist movement and to be
capable of clearing the RPR of all the remain elements of De
Gaulle, opposite to him. Although in the second ballot where
Giscard was required to support all the right-centre wing
elements, Chirac denied to support him which resulted in
Giscard losing the elections from the socialist Mitterand
(Frears, 1991, pp155-58). The first ballot of the elections of
1981 was a triumph for Giscard who succeeded to win with a
large difference from his main opponent Chirac. However,
the second ballot was a disaster for the reason that UDF was
a coalition based on electoral win; and defeat had shaken its
foundations. In addition, for the RPR the first ballot was mere
disaster for the reason that had been defeated from the
main opponent. On the other hand, Chirac succeeded to
survive as the main leader of the Gaullism. The second ballot
was an additional demonstration of Chirac’s abilities, even if
he had lost; he had used the remains of the importance of
his party to undermine his major opponent. Therefore we
can say that Chirac succeeded to exit the election winner in
terms of centre right dispute.

Parliamentary elections of 1981

They were held on the 14th and 21st June, after the decision
of the new president Mitterand to dissolve the National
Assembly. Mitterand decided to do so since the Parliament
was dominated by the right-wing and he was thinking that
after his victory in the presidential elections an additional
victory would be possible at a parliamentary level. The RPR
and the UDF in front of the threat French political life to be
dominant from the left had decided to corporate. The RPR
was voted by 5.2 million voters which represented 20.9%
and 86 seats in Parliament. The UDF was voted by 4.8 million
voters which represent 19.2% and 66 seats in Parliament.
(Frears, 1991, pp180-81). Parliamentary elections of 1981
were an important test to the abilities of UDF, it put under
examination the ability of the party to maintain its electoral
base united without casualties after the electoral defeat one
month before in the presidential elections; in this terms the
UDF failed to maintain its electoral base united, in less than
a month it lost 10% of its voters. On the other hand, the RPR
preserved its electoral base being established as the
dominant party in centre-right waiting the next chance to
face the new opponent: left.

Conclusion

The creation of the UDF and the RPR was resulted from the
end of a traditional Gaullism. This gap was trying to take
advantage of the non Gaullist right and created the UDF. In
addition the RPR attempted to fulfil the same gap based on
being presented as the continuer of De Gaulle’s legacy.
Moreover, it must be mentioned that both parties had been
based onto their respective leaders and the leaders based
onto the parties in order to achieve their ambitions. In terms
of success we can say that the UDF was more successful
until the presidential elections of 1981 when it was the
absolute winner. However, the failure of Giscard to be re-
elected resulted on the main motive, to govern, to be lost
together with the incapacities that suffered as not a real
political party like lack of ability to organize and to mobilize
a political base had resulted on the decline in parliamentary
elections 1981. The RPR until the presidential elections of
1981succeeded not to lose its electoral base but was not
able to threat the UDF. Although it was clear that the
elections were lost because of the fact that Chirac would not
support Giscard in the second ballot, it had proved wise had
sink UDF in a turbulent period of dispute and after one
month in the parliamentary lection was again in the same
level.
In political terms, Chirac proved to be more sufficient from
Giscard and succeeded to overwhelm the strains of his party
taking in advantage the disadvantages of Giscard’s party. On
the other hand, Giscard never succeeded to follow the
moves of Chirac in the political arena and logically never
succeeded to establish his party as the major party in the
centre-right.

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