Last modified: 2025-06-18 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: udf | nouvelle udf |
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr}nudf.gif)
Flag of Nouvelle UDF - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 17 May 2025
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The Union for French Democracy (French: Union pour la démocratie
française, UDF) was a centre-right political party in France. The UDF
was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist
preponderance over the French centre-right. The UDF took its name from
Giscard's 1976 book, Démocratie française.
The founding parties of the UDF were Giscard's Republican Party, the
Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), the Radical Party, the Social
Democratic Party and the Perspectives and Realities Clubs (CPR). The
UDF was most frequently a partner in coalitions with the neo-Gaullist
Rally for the Republic (RPR).
In the run-up of the 1995 presidential election the different components of the UDF were unable to agree on a common candidacy and consequently they divided between the two RPR candidates. Most UDF members supported Balladur, whereas a minority endorsed Chirac, as Giscard had proposed. In the aftermath, the CDS merged with the PSD into Democratic Force (FD), while CPR members and other supporters of Giscard within the PR formed the Popular Party for French Democracy (PPDF).
After the defeat of the RPR–UDF front in the 1997 legislative election, the UDF faced a major crisis. While the centrist components had merged into FD, the conservative liberals tried to overcome the fracture between pro-Chirac and pro-Balladur. The PR was joined by some politicians from the PPDF and was renamed Liberal Democracy (DL). DL soon began to reassert its autonomy within the alliance and finally broke ranks with the UDF in 1998. The split was triggered by the 1998 regional elections, during which some UDF politicians were elected regional presidents with the support of the National Front: DL refused to condemn the arrangement, whilst the UDF leadership did. In 1998 the UDF became a single entity, causing the defection of Liberal Democracy (DL), PR's successor. This split of DL led to a re-organisation of the UDF.
The nouvelle UDF (new UDF) was transformed into a single party through the merger of FD and the Independent Republican and Liberal Pole (PRIL), formed by te DL members who refused to leave UDF. The Radicals and the PPDF remained as autonomous entities within the new party. Former FD leader Bayrou became the natural leader of the new UDF. The UDF effectively ceased to exist by the end of 2007 and its membership and assets were transferred to its successor, the Democratic Movement (MoDem).
Olivier Touzeau, 17 May 2025
The 1998-2004 flag of the new UDF was white with logo: video, photo.
No flag spotted with the other historical logos of the party.
Olivier Touzeau, 17 May 2025