History
Background
Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1981 and 1988 legislative elections.
Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France (UPF). However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were both divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, who was eventually elected, and supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR and UDF created the Alliance for France in order to coordinate the actions of their parliamentary groups.
Foundation and early years
Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move (Union en mouvement).[5] After Chirac's re-election, in order to contest the legislative election jointly, the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la majorité présidentielle) was created. It was renamed "Union for a Popular Movement" and as such established as a permanent organisation.[5]
The UMP was the merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR), the conservative-liberal party Liberal Democracy (DL), a sizeable portion of the Union for French Democracy (UDF),[6] more precisely the UDF's Christian Democrats (such as Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Barrot), the Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy (both associate parties of the UDF until 2002). In the UMP four major French political families were thus represented: Gaullism, republicanism (the kind of liberalism put forward by parties like the Democratic Republican Alliance or the PR, heir of DL), Christian democracy (Popularism) and radicalism.
Chirac's close ally Alain Juppé became the party's first president at the party's founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79.42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the party's Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, and three other candidates.[5] During the party's earlier years, it was marked by tensions and rivalries between Juppé and other chiraquiens and supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy, the then-Minister of the Interior.
In the 2004 regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, winning the presidencies of only 2 out of 22 regions in metropolitan France (Alsace and Corsica) and only half of the departments (the right had previously won numerous departmental presidencies) in the simultaneous 2004 cantonal elections. In the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP also suffered another heavy blow, winning 16.6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party (PS), and only 16 seats.
The membership in the early 2000s grew from 100,000 to 300,000 after members received a greater say in the selection of the party’s presidential candidate.[7]
Nicolas Sarkozy (2004–2012)
Juppé resigned the party's presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy rapidly announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the party's presidency with 85.09% of the votes against 9.1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5.82% for Christine Boutin, the leader of the UMP's social conservatives.[5][8] Having gained control of what had been Chirac's party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery and his energies on the 2007 presidential election.
The failure of the referendum on the European Constitution on 25 May 2005 led to the fall of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin. However, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election. On 14 January 2007, Sarkozy was nominated unopposed as the UMP's presidential candidate for the 2007 election.
On the issues, the party under Sarkozy publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had previously endorsed several times publicly, and generally took a more right-wing position.
On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. On 6 May he faced the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal in the second round and won, taking 53.06% of the vote. As a consequence, he resigned from the presidency of the UMP on 14 May 2007, two days before becoming President of the French Republic. François Fillon was appointed Prime Minister. On 17 June 2007, at a 2007 legislative election, the UMP gained a majority in the National Assembly with 313 out of 577 seats.
Following Sarkozy's election to the presidency, interim leader Jean-Claude Gaudin prevented a leadership struggle between Patrick Devedjian and Jean-Pierre Raffarin by announcing that the UMP should have a collegial leadership while Sarkozy was President of the Republic.[9] In July, the UMP's national council approved an amendment to the party's statute allowing for a collegial leadership around three vice-presidents (Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Jean-Claude Gaudin and Pierre Méhaignerie) and a secretary-general (Patrick Devedjian) and two associate secretary-generals.
On 9 March 2008 municipal and cantonal elections, the party performed quite poorly, losing numerous cities, such as Toulouse and Strasbourg, as well as eight departmental presidencies to the left. Xavier Bertrand was selected as secretary-general of the party in late 2008 to replace Patrick Devedjian, who resigned to take up a cabinet position.[10]
In the 2009 European Parliament election on 7 June 2009, the UMP ran common lists with its junior allies including Jean-Louis Borloo's Radical Party, the New Centre and Modern Left. The UMP list won 27.9%, a remarkably good result for a governing party in off-year "mid-term" elections, and elected 29 MEPs, significantly improving on the UMP's poor result in the 2004 European election – also an off-year election. However, in the 2010 regional elections on 14 and 21 March 2010, the UMP obtained a very poor result with only 26%. While it lost Corsica, it retained Alsace but also defeated the left in La Réunion and French Guiana.
In a cabinet reshuffle in November 2010, which disappointed centrists within and outside the UMP, François Fillon was confirmed Prime Minister and Alain Juppé re-joined the government. Among those who resigned from the cabinet were Bernard Kouchner, Hervé Morin and, above all, Jean-Louis Borloo. Xavier Bertrand, who re-joined the government, was replaced as general-secretary of the UMP by Jean-François Copé on 17 November 2010.[11][12]
The party suffered another major electoral defeat in the 2011 cantonal elections held on 20 and 27 March 2011, and in September, the centre-right lost control of the French Senate for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic.
In May 2011, during a party congress, the Radical Party, led by Borloo, decided to leave the UMP and launch The Alliance, a new centrist coalition.[13][14][15]
The party opted not to organise primaries ahead of the 2012 presidential election[16] and endorsed Nicolas Sarkozy's bid for second term. Sarkozy lost reelection to the Socialist Party candidate François Hollande on 6 May 2012, winning 48.36% in the runoff. The party was defeated by the new President's left-wing majority in the subsequent legislative election.
After May 2012
Prior to Sarkozy's defeat on 6 May, the UMP's secretary-general Jean-François Copé announced that he supported the creation of internal "movements" within the party[17] and the organisation of primaries for the next presidential election.[18]
Campaign for the November 2012 congress
The UMP's political bureau announced the organisation of a party congress on 18 and 25 November 2012,[19] leading prominent party leaders to organise factions and "movements" to influence the party's new direction.[20]
Ultimately, two candidates amassed the required endorsements to run for the party's presidency: former Prime Minister François Fillon[21] and incumbent party secretary-general Jean-François Copé.[22] Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet,[23] Bruno Le Maire,[24] Xavier Bertrand,[25] Henri Guaino,[26] and Dominique Dord[27] had also announced their candidacies but did not meet tough candidacy requirements.
The campaign between Fillon and Copé lasted two months. Fillon had a strong lead in polls of UMP 'sympathizers' (as opposed to actual members, who would be the only eligible voters) and was backed by most UMP parliamentarians[28] while Copé claimed he was the candidate of party activists rather than party 'barons'.[29] However, Copé remained as secretary-general and retained control of the party machinery.[30]
While Fillon's campaign was regarded as more consensual, moderate and centre-right; Copé campaigned as the candidate of the droite décomplexée ('uninhibited right')[31] and introduced issues such as anti-white racism.[32] However, both candidates received support from moderate and conservative members of the party and their main differences were in rhetoric, style and temperament.[33] Copé, again, appeared more militant and activist, saying that he would support and participate in street demonstrations[34] while Fillon disagreed with his rival.[35]
Six 'motions' (declarations of principles) were submitted to party voters; under the new statutes, motions which won over 10% of the vote at the congress would be recognised as "movements" by the UMP leadership, granted financial autonomy and receive positions in the party structures.[citation needed]
Results and subsequent crisis
The vote on 18 November saw high turnout but was quickly marred by allegations of irregularities and potential fraud on both sides.[36] Both candidates proclaimed victory within 20 minutes of each other on the night of the vote.[37]
24 hours later, the control commission in charge of the vote (COCOE) announced Copé's victory by only 98 votes.[38] While Fillon initially conceded defeat, by 21 November his campaign claimed victory anew, with a 26-vote advantage over Copé.[39] Fillon's campaign argued that the COCOE had failed to take into account votes cast in three overseas federations.
Party elder Alain Juppé accepted to lead a mediation between both candidates on 23 November,[40] but it failed within two days. Fillon's announced "precautionary seizure" of ballots cast "to protect them from tampering or alteration"[41] and threatened to take the matter to court.[42] On 26 November, the party appeals commission – led by a close supporter of Copé – decided in Copé's favour and rejected Fillon's arguments.[43]
On 27 November 72 filloniste parliamentarians in the National Assembly announced the creation of a new parliamentary group, the Rassemblement-UMP, led by Fillon.[44] Copé took up former President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal of organising a referendum on a revote, but he saw the creation of the dissident filloniste group as a casus belli and took back his proposal. Luc Chatel, the new vice-president and a Copé supporter, later announced that he supported a new presidential vote and a modification of party statutes.[45] The next day, Copé announced that he favoured organising a referendum the modification of party statutes and a reduction of his own term as president to two years (until November 2014); while Fillon welcomed the "consensus on the organisation of a new election" he rejected his rival's timeline and called for a new election before 2014.[46] 'Unaligned' members of the UMP led by Bruno Le Maire and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet appealed for the organisation of a new election in the spring of 2013 and a reform of the party statutes.[47]
Resolution
Both rivals reached an agreement at the end of December 2012,[48] with Copé agreeing to the organisation of a new election and a modification of party statutes while Fillon agreed to dissolve his parliamentary group.
The party's leadership was reorganized in January 2013 to accommodate Copé and Fillon's supporters: Laurent Wauquiez and Valérie Pécresse joined Luc Chatel and Michèle Tabarot as vice-president and secretary-general respectively. Christian Estrosi, Gérard Longuet, Henri de Raincourt (pro-Fillon), Jean-Claude Gaudin, Brice Hortefeux and Roger Karoutchi (pro-Copé) also became vice-presidents. Other positions in the party hierarchy were divided between supporters of both candidates.[49] New leaders were also nominated in February 2013.
Bygmalion scandal
Several spending scandals appeared in 2014. In early 2014, the Bygmalion scandal (fr) pushed the party's leader Jean-François Copé to resign. In early July, Sarkozy got held in custody due to possible spying and active corruption of the judiciary system. On 8 July 2014, the UMP was discovered to have a hidden debt of €79.1 million for the year 2013.[50] On 20 May 2021, the criminal trial began for Sarkozy and 13 other defendants who were said to have been involved in the Bygmalion scandal.[51] The scandal allegations that Sarkozy diverting tens of millions of euros which was intended to be spent on his failed 2012 re-election campaign and then hiring a PR firm to cover it up.[51] The illicit campaign finance money which was not reported as being spent on Sarkozy's re-election campaign was instead used to overspend on lavish campaign rallies and events.[51] On 30 September 2021, Sarkozy and his co-defendants would be convicted for violating France's campaign finance spending limit law.[52] For this conviction, Sarkozy was given a 1-year prison sentence, though he was also given the option to instead serve this sentence at home with an electronic bracelet.[52]
Name change and dissolution
After the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France (2007–2012), as president of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in November 2014, he put forward a request to the party's general committee to change its name to the Republicans as well as the statutes of the party. With the name already chosen Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, vice president of the UMP, presented Nicolas Sarkozy and the party's political bureau a project of new statutes. The proposed statutes provided for, among others, the election of the presidents of the departmental federations by direct suffrage, the end of the political currents and consulting members on election nominations.[53]
Critics of Sarkozy claimed it was illegal for him to name the party "Republicans" because every French person is a republican in that they support the values and ideals of the French Republic that emanated from the French Revolution, and as such the term is above party politics.[54] The new name was adopted by the bureau on 5 May 2015 and approved by the party membership on 28 May by an online yes vote of 83.28% on a 45.74% participation after a court ruling in favor of Sarkozy.[55] Similarly the new party statutes are adopted by 96.34% of voters and the composition of the new party's political bureau by 94.77%.
The Republicans thus became the legal successor of the UMP as the leading centre-right party in France.[4]
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