Union for a Popular Movement

Union for a Popular Movement
Union pour un Mouvement Populaire
Leader Xavier Bertrand
(Secretary-general)
Founded November 17, 2002
Headquarters 55, rue La Boétie
75384 Paris Cedex 08
Ideology Liberal conservatism,[1]
Christian democracy,[1]
Gaullism[1]
International affiliation Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union
European affiliation European People's Party
European Parliament Group European People's Party
Official colours Blue, Red
National Assembly
313 / 577
Senate
151 / 343
European Parliament
24 / 72
Regional Councils
331 / 1,880
Website
www.u-m-p.org
Politics of France
Political parties
Elections

The Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP) is a centre-right political party in France. Founded in 2002 by Jacques Chirac as a merger of several centre-right parties supporting him, it currently enjoys an absolute majority in the National Assembly and a plurality in the Senate. Its leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of France in 2007. The UMP is a member of the European People's Party (EPP), the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).

Contents

History

Premises

Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right 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 elections. Some politicians advocated the formation of a united right-wing party.

Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. But during the 1995 presidential campaign it was divided between the followers of Jacques Chirac and the supporters of Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the right-wing parties created the Alliance for France in order to coordinate the action of their parliamentary groups.

Foundation

Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Chirac who were divided in three right-wing parliamentary parties, founded an association, named Union on the Move (Union en mouvement).[2] After Chirac's re-election, in order to prepare the legislative election, the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la majorité présidentielle) was created. It was re-named "Union for a Popular Movement" some months later, establishing the UMP as a permanent organization rather than simply as the umbrella organization for Jacques Chirac's supporters.[2]

The UMP was founded as a merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR), the conservative-liberal Liberal Democracy (DL), a sizeable portion of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF), more precisely the UDF's Christian Democrats (such as Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Barrot), the social-liberal Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy (both associate parties of the UDF until 2002).

The party was thus born out of the meeting of four major French political traditions: Gaullism, Liberalism (also known as Republicanism in France), Christian Democracy (Popularism) and Radicalism.

As indicated by its initial name, the UMP generally supported the policies of President Jacques Chirac. However, in 2004, the party showed increasing signs of independence. The unpopularity with the electorate of Jacques Chirac and Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government led most members of the UMP to support Nicolas Sarkozy, a rival of Chirac. The party also publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had previously endorsed several times publicly.

Since 2004

The first president of the UMP, Alain Juppé, a close associate of Jacques Chirac, resigned on 15 July 2004 after being convicted of political corruption in January of the same year. On 29 November 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would officially take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation.

In the 2004 French regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, winning the presidencies of only 2 out of 22 regions in Metropolitan France (Alsace and Corse) and only half of the departments (the right had previously won numerous departmental presidencies). In the June European Parliament election, the party also suffered a heavy blow, with only 16.6% of the vote, far behind the Socialists, and only 16 seats. This results remains the UMP's lowest point. The failure of the referendum on the European Constitution of 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.

On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. In the second round he faced Socialist Candidate Ségolène Royal. On May 6, 2007 he won the presidential election, garnering 53.1% 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. On 17 June, in the legislative election, UMP again gained a majority in the National Assembly with 313 out of 577 seats, though it was less than expected following opinion polls and lost about 40 to 60 seats.

In the municipal and cantonal elections held in March 2008, the party suffered a blow, losing numerous cities, such as Toulouse and Strasbourg as well as 8 departmental presidencies to the left.

Xavier Bertrand, Minister of Social Affairs in the Francois Fillon cabinet was selected as the interim leader of the party in late 2008 to replace Patrick Devedjian, who resigned to take up a cabinet position.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party ran a common "Presidential Majority" list with the smaller Radical Party as well as the New Centre and Modern Left. These lists won 27.9%, a remarkably good result for a governing party in off-year "midterm" elections, and it elected 29 MEPs, significantly improving of the UMP's poor result in the 2004 election - also a off-year election. However, in the March 2010 regional election the UMP (allied with New Centre, Movement for France and Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition), in spite of the absence of a competitor list representing the parliamentary right, obtained a very poor result with only 26% of votes, the lowest of the parliamentary right since the beginning of the Fifth Republic . It lost Corsica, one of its two metropolitan regions.

Factions

Associate parties

The Radical Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Rally for France, The Progressives and Modern Left are associate parties of the UMP. By adhering to these parties, members also adhere to the UMP and can participate in the UMP's inner organization.

Overseas parties associated with the UMP include O Porinetia To Tatou Ai'a in French Polynesia and The Rally–UMP in New Caledonia.

Elected officials

Major officeholders

Group leaders

Popular support and electoral record

The UMP's electoral base reflects that of the old Rally for the Republic and, in some cases, that of the Union for French Democracy. In the 2007 presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy performed best in the east of France - particularly Alsace (36.2%); Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (37.0%) - the wealthy coastal department of the Alpes-Maritimes (43.6%) was his best department in France; Champagne-Ardenne (32.7%) and Rhône-Alpes (32.7%). These areas were among far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen's best regions in 2002 and are conservative on issues such as immigration. Sarkozy obviously received a lot of votes from voters who had supported the far-right in April 2002. For example, in the Alpes-Maritimes, Sarkozy performed 21.6% better than Chirac did in 2002 while Le Pen lost 12.6% in five years.[3] Sarkozy also appealed more than average to blue-collar workers in regions such as northern Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, although most of these regions, despite his gains, remain reliably left-wing.[4] The party is also strong in every election in very wealthy suburban or coastal (and, in some cases, urban) areas such as Neuilly-sur-Seine (72.6% for Sarkozy in the first round),[5] Saint-Tropez (54.79%),[6] Cannes (48.19%)[7] or Marcq-en-Barœul (47.35%).[8] It is strong in most rural areas, like most conservative parties in the world, but this does not extend to the rural areas of the south of France, areas which are old strongholds of republican and secular ideals. However, in old "clerical" Catholic rural areas, such as parts of Lozère or Cantal, it is very strong, as was the Union for French Democracy (UDF) in its hey day.

However, the UMP does poorly in one of the UDF's best regions, Brittany, where the decline of religious practice, a moderate electorate and urbanization has hurt the UMP and also the UDF. Nicolas Sarkozy performed relatively poorly in departments with a large share of moderate Christian democratic (often centrist or centre-right) voters, such as Lozère where the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal performed better (44.3%) than François Mitterrand had in his 1988 left-wing landslide (43.1%). While former President Jacques Chirac, the right's strongman in normally left-wing Corrèze had always done very well in Corrèze and the surrounding departments, Sarkozy did much poorly and actually lost the department in the 2007 runoff. However, in the 2009 European election, the UMP's results in those departments were superior to Sarkozy's first round result (nationally, they were 4% lower).[3]

Presidential

President of the French Republic
Election year Candidate # of 1st round votes  % of 1st round vote # of 2nd round votes  % of 2nd round vote
2002 Jacques Chirac 5,665,855 19.88% 25,537,956 82.21%
2007 Nicolas Sarkozy 11,448,663 31.18% 18,983,138 53.06%

Legislative

French National Assembly
Election year # of 1st round votes  % of 1st round vote # of 2nd round votes  % of 2nd round vote # of seats
2002 8,408,023 33.30% 10,026,669 47.26% 357
2007 10,289,737 39.54% 9,460,710 46.36% 313

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year Number of votes  % of overall vote # of seats won
2004 2,856,368 16.64% 17
2009 4,799,908 27.88% 29

Leadership

Nicolas Sarkozy

Presidents

The post of President of the UMP was, for the moment, abolished, and the Secretary General is the de facto leader of the UMP. The office of Secretary General is currently held by Xavier Bertrand.

Vice Presidents

General Secretaries

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.parties-and-elections.de/france.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "chronologie UMP". France politique. http://www.france-politique.fr/histoire-ump.htm. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "IFOP analysis". http://www.ifop.com/?option=com_publication&type=publication&id=31. 
  4. ↑ "Results". CDSP website. http://cdsp.sciences-po.fr/AE.php. 
  5. ↑ "Ministry of the Interior results page". http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/PR2007/053/035/5335.html. 
  6. ↑ "Ministry of the Interior results page". http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/PR2007/093/083/83119.html. 
  7. ↑ "Ministry of the Interior results page". http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/PR2007/093/006/06029.html. 
  8. ↑ "Ministry of the Interior results page". http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/PR2007/031/059/59378.html. 
  9. ↑ In July 2007 Jean-Claude Gaudin, acting President, declared that "Nicolas Sarkozy remains, morally, President of the UMP" and the party endorsed this statement by not choosing a nominal leader as replacement for Sarkozy. The collegial leadership is composed of the General Secretary and the Vice Presidents of the party.

See also

External links

Political parties in France France
Political parties represented in the
National Assembly of France (577) Seats.
Union for a Popular Movement (313) - Socialist Party (186) - New Centre (22) - Radical Party1(18) - French Communist Party (17) - Radical Party of the Left (8) - The Greens (3) - Democratic Movement (3) - Left Party (3) - Movement for France (2) - Arise the Republic (2) - National Centre of Independents and Peasants (2) - Citizen and Republican Movement (1)
Political parties represented in the
Senate of France (343) Seats.
Union for a Popular Movement (151) - Socialist Party (111) - French Communist Party (22) -
New Centre (11) - Radical Party of the Left (10) - Democratic Movement (7) - Radical Party1(6) - The Greens (5) - Left Party (2) - Citizen and Republican Movement (1) - Modern Left (1) - National Centre of Independents and Peasants (1) - Rally for France1(1)
Political parties represented in the
European Parliament (74) seats.
Union for a Popular Movement (24) - Socialist Party (14) - The Greens (14) - Democratic Movement (6) - Radical Party (4) - New Centre (3) - French Communist Party (3) - National Front (3) - Modern Left (2) - Left Party (1) - Movement for France (1) - Citizenship, Action, Participation for the 21st Century2 (1)
Political parties not represented in the
Parliament of France.
Christian Democratic Party1 - The Progressives1 - Ecology Generation – Independent Ecological Movement - New Anticapitalist Party – Workers' Struggle – Independent Workers' Party – Unitarian Left - Savoy Region Movement - Ligue Savoisienne - Occitan Party
Breton Democratic Union - Breton Party - Alsace d'abord - Abertzaleen Batasuna - Republican Left of Catalonia - Party of the Corsican Nation
Notes:1 and 2Numbers denote party affiliations, 1 is for parties linked to the Union for a Popular Movement, 2 is for parties linked to the Democratic Movement.