Democratic Centre (France)
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| Centre Démocrate | |
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| Last President | Jean Lecanuet |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Dissolution | 1976 |
| Political Ideology | Christian democracy, centrism |
| European Affiliation | None |
| International Affiliation | None |
| Colours | cyan, light blue |
| See also | Constitution of France France Politics |
Democratic Centre was a French Christian-Democratic and centrist party.
It was founded on 2 February 1966 by Jean Lecanuet after his 1965 presidential campaign. It came from the merge of the centrist Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and the conservative National Center of Independents and Peasants (CNIP). Its goal was to incarnate a third way between the left-wing opposition (which was marxist and anticlerical) and the Gaullist coalition (accused to be Eurosceptic, nationalist and authoritative).
Before the 1967 legislative election, some Christian-Democrats left the party to join the Gaullist movement Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic (Maurice Schumann etc.). One year later, the CNIP left the Democratic Centre.
In 1969, the party called to vote "no" at the referendum about regionalization and Senate's reform which caused the resignation of De Gaulle. At the presidential election, it supported the candidacy of Alain Poher, chairman of the Senate. He reached in the second round but he was defeated by Georges Pompidou, a former Gaullist Prime Minister. After that, some centrists joined the presidential majority and the cabinet of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a reforming Gaullist. They founded Centre, Democracy and Progress (CDP).
The others, always led by Jean Lecanuet, allied with the centre-left Radical Party of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber in the Reforming Movement, in order to propose a third way between the Common Programme of the left and the presidential majority. Finally, it supported the winning presidential candidacy of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing at the 1974 election and integrated the presidential majority.
On 23 May 1976, the Democratic Centre merged with the CDP into the Democratic and Social Centre.
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