Republican Party (France)

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The Republican Party (Parti républicain, PR) was a French right-wing political party founded in 1977. It replaced the National Federation of the Independent Republicans created by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who was President of France since 1974.

In 1978, the Republican Party allied with centrist groups to form the Union for French Democracy (Union pour la démocratie française, UDF), a confederation created in order to support President Giscard d'Estaing and couterbalanced the RPR preponderance over the right.

Until the split of the UDF confederation in 1998, the Republican Party was its liberal component, advocating economic liberalism. In 1997, it was replaced by Liberal Democracy (Démocratie libérale, DL), led by Alain Madelin.