The Citizen and Republican Movement ( French: ''Mouvement républicain et citoyen'') is a
political party in France
This article contains a list of political parties in France.
France has a multi-party political system: one in which the number of competing political parties is sufficiently large as to make it almost inevitable that in order to participate in ...
. The party replaced in 2002 the Citizens' Movement (''Mouvement des citoyens'', MDC) founded by
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 t ...
(PS) in 1993 due to his opposition to the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
and to the
Maastricht Treaty
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...
. It is a Eurosceptic party with leftist aspirations.
Chevènement led the list ''l'autre politique'' (the Other Policy) for 1994 European Parliament election. It included members of left-wing opposition (socialist and communist candidates) to
Maastricht Treaty
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...
, feminists, radicals, and
Gaullist
Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle with ...
s. The MDC supported the Socialist candidate
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.
Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...
for the
1995 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April, with a second round on 7 May.
Background
The Socialist incumbent president François Mitterrand, who had been in office since 1981, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had term ...
, then integrated the ''
Gauche plurielle
The Gauche Plurielle (French for ''Plural Left'') was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), the French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'' or PCF), the Greens, the Left Radi ...
'' coalition. From 1997 to 2000, it was represented in the government by Chevènement as Interior Minister. In order to prepare the
2002 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, on 5 May. This presidential ...
, Chevènement created the ''Pôle républicain'', which included a wide range of politicians including radicals, Gaullists,
souverainists
Sovereigntism, sovereignism or souverainism (from french: souverainisme, , meaning the ideology of sovereignty) is the notion of having control over one's conditions of existence, whether at the level of the self, social group, region, nation o ...
, and socialists. He won over 5% and is sometimes blamed for Jospin's elimination. Its lack of success in the 2002 French legislative election, losing all 7 MDC deputies elected in 1997, prompted Chevènement to rename his party the Citizen and Republican Movement. Chevènement was defeated in his seat in
Territoire-de-Belfort
The Territoire de Belfort () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, eastern France. It had a population of 141,318 in 2019.Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...
(UMP). He failed to win back his seat, but Christian Hutin, a left-wing Gaullist, was elected in the Nord département. The party has one Senator, Chevènement, who sits in the
European Democratic and Social Rally
The European Democratic and Social Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et social européen, abbreviated RDSE), formerly the Democratic and European Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et européen), is ...
(RDSE) group, which is the more
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''. Politi ...
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
European Parliament elections, the party did not run or support any list. Negotiations with the Socialist Party and the new Left Front failed.
In October 2018, PS MEP Emmanuel Maurel and senator Marie-Noëlle Lienemann announced that they would leave the Socialists to ally with the MRC in a new party called ''
Gauche républicaine et socialiste
The Republican and Socialist Left (french: Gauche républicaine et socialiste, GRS) is a socialist political party in France. It was founded on 3 February 2019 after the merger of the Alternative for a Republican, Ecologist and Socialist Program ( ...
'' (GRS). On 12 November 2018, a group presided over by Jean-Marie Alexandre announced the reconstitution of the MDC as a party.