The Democratic Movement (french: link=no, Mouvement démocrate, ; MoDem, ) is a
centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
to
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
that is characterised by a strong
pro-European
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Polit ...
stance. MoDem was founded by
François Bayrou
François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has presided over the Democratic Movement (MoDem) since he founded it in 2007. A centrist, he was a candidate in the 2002, 2007 and 2012 presidential elections ...
to succeed the
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
(UDF) and contest the
2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the
2007 presidential election. Initially named the Democratic Party (''Parti démocrate''), the party was renamed "Democratic Movement", because there was already a small Democratic Party in France.
MoDem secured an agreement with
La République En Marche!
Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a ...
in the
2017 legislative election after Bayrou endorsed the candidacy of
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
in February. In June 2017, the MoDem and its MEPs were accused of potentially fictitious employment practices within the European Parliament. Bayrou resigned on 21 June from his post as
Justice Minister soon after he became embroiled in the fictitious employment scandals, and allegations of harassment against a journalist reporting on the scandal.
History
Background
The MoDem traces its roots to the
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
(UDF), centrist coalition/party active from 1978 to 2007.
Traditionally, the UDF had always supported centre-right governments since its creation by
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The UDF aligned itself with the
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...
(UMP) following its creation in 2002, and even took part in the government coalition in the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
from 2002 to 2007, though it did not participate in the
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filin ...
(except for
Gilles de Robien). However, during the second term of
Jacques Chirac, the UDF became increasingly independent from the UMP. On the initiative of its leader,
François Bayrou
François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has presided over the Democratic Movement (MoDem) since he founded it in 2007. A centrist, he was a candidate in the 2002, 2007 and 2012 presidential elections ...
, it eventually supported a censure motion along with the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...
(PS).
2007 presidential election
During the
2007 presidential campaign, Bayrou advocated a national unity government. He presented himself as a centrist and a social-liberal, proclaiming that, if elected, he would "govern beyond the left-right divide". Although eliminated in the first round, over 18% of voters supported him, partly because of his independence from major parties. Following the election, he founded the Democratic Movement (MoDem) on 29 May to reinforce his strategy of political independence. MoDem was also supported by the
Union of Radical Republicans.
Some members of the UDF did not agree with this new strategy because the weighted French balloting system would hinder the Democratic Movement from obtaining seats in the legislative elections. These members created the
New Centre, continuing their support for the newly elected president
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
.
2007 legislative election
The MoDem won 7.6% of the votes in the first round of the
June 2007 legislative election.
Candidates ran under the UDF-MoDem banner, since the party had not yet been created officially. The party gained three seats in the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...
(not including
Abdoulatifou Aly
Abdoulatifou Aly (12 April 1960 – 26 June 2020) was a Malagascar-born French Mahoran politician, a long-term representative of the island of Mayotte at the National Assembly of France, and a member of the executive bureau of the Democrat ...
who was elected in
Mayotte
Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...
for a party affiliated to the MoDem. He sat with the
New Centre for a short while but he is now sitting with the MoDem deputies).
Thierry Benoit, one of the four MPs, has been vocally critical of the party, but he actually sits for the MoDem and defends the movement's policies. He stated that he had been elected jointly by centre-right and left-wing citizens.
Official foundation
The MoDem became an official political party on 1 December 2007 following its founding assembly in
Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, in the suburbs of Paris. The assembly elected Bayrou, who ran uncontested, as the party president, and also elected 29 others to the provisional executive board. On 30 November 2007, the UDF effectively ceased to exist, and was fully integrated within MoDem.
2012 presidential and legislative elections
At the
2012 presidential election Bayrou won 9.3% of the vote, a half of what he had obtained five years before. In the subsequent
legislative election the party was reduced to 1.8% and won only two seats while Bayrou lost his seat in the National Assembly, which he had held for most of his political career.
2014 municipal elections
In the city counting more than inhabitants, the party scored an average of 15%, winning over 50 cities. Bayrou won in
Pau, while the party continues to run cities like
Biarritz
Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spa ...
,
Saint-Brieuc
Saint-Brieuc (, Breton language, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo language, Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor Departments of France, department in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France.
History
...
,
Mont-de-Marsan and
Talence, and is part of the ruling coalition in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
,
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlie ...
,
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Saint-Étienne is the ...
and
Auxerre, among others.
2014 European Parliament election
In an alliance with the
Union of Democrats and Independents
The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a centre to centre-right political party in France and former electoral alliance founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary grou ...
(UDI), also a successor of the
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
, MoDem obtained 9.93% of the national level vote in France.
Ensemble Citoyens
Ahead of the
2022 legislative elections, MoDem formed a coalition with two other centrist parties –
Horizons and
La République En Marche!
Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a ...
– to coordinate which candidates it presents.
Ideology
During the
2007 presidential election, Bayrou stressed three points: the public debt, the need for change and ''ouverture'' to the right/left political system, and the need of constitutional reforms in that direction.
International affiliations
In 2004, Bayrou launched the
European Democratic Party (EDP) along with
Francesco Rutelli's
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. In 2005, the EDP created, along with the
New Democrat Coalition of the
United States Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled a wide cadre of politicians in every state behind war hero And ...
, the
Alliance of Democrats, a worldwide network of
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the ...
and
social liberal parties.
In the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
, MoDem sits in the
Renew Europe group with 5 MEPs.
In the
European Committee of the Regions, MoDem sits in the
Renew Europe CoR group with one full member for the 2020-2025 mandate. Vincent Chauvet is Coordinator in the ENVE Commission.
Electoral results
Presidential elections
This table includes the 2002 and 2007 elections in which the MoDem founder, François Bayrou, presented himself as a candidate of the
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
(UDF).
Legislative elections
European Parliament elections
The 2014 elections involved an alliance with the forces of the
Union of Democrats and Independents
The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a centre to centre-right political party in France and former electoral alliance founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary grou ...
(UDI); this joint list,
The Alternative (''L'Alternative''), saw four MoDem MEPs out of seven elected from the list.
See also
*
Democratic Movement and affiliated group
*
Centrist Union group
References
External links
*
{{French centrist parties
2007 establishments in France
Political parties established in 2007
Political parties of the French Fifth Republic
European Democratic Party
Centrist parties in France
Centre-right parties in Europe
Christian democratic parties in Europe
Social liberal parties
Pro-European political parties in France
Democratic Movement (France)