Nous Citoyens 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 ...

founded in July 2013 by entrepreneur

Denis Payre Business Objects (BO, BOBJ, or BObjects) was an enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence (BI). Business Objects was acquired in 2007 by German company SAP AG. The company claimed more than 46,000 customers in its final ea ...

. The name of the party was chosen a reference to the phrase "Moi président de la République...", repeated by

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...

against

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 ...

in the debate between the two rounds of the

2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January: E ...

. The party aims to elect figures from civil society and with business experience in place of the professional political class, supporting

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and

social liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

policies and presenting an "alternative offer to the FN" ( ''Front National''). It claims to go beyond the left-right divide with a program created through "participatory democracy" supportive of globalization and critical of the French labor code. In the 2014 municipal elections, Nous Citoyens offered its support to any candidates committed to "good governance, transparency, and the non- accumulation of mandates", and won a total of 58 seats across 18 communes. In the subsequent

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

, the party solicited applications from its members to join its electoral lists, hoping to be present in all 8

European Parliament constituencies in France From 2004 to 2019, there were eight European Parliament constituencies in France. Since the 2019 European Parliament election, there has been a single constituency covering the whole country. The constituencies all used the party-list proportio ...

. Nous Citoyens ultimately presented lists in 7 constituencies, winning 1.41% of the vote nationally. On 8 September 2013, Payre was replaced as president of Nous Citoyens by centrist

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

Jean-Marie Cavada Jean-Marie Cavada (born 24 February 1940 in Épinal, Vosges) is a French politician and former journalist and media executive who last served as a Member of the European Parliament for Ile de France from 2004 until 2019. Since 3 December 2011 he ...

, who consequently stepped down as vice-president of the

New Centre The Centrists (french: Les Centristes, LC), formerly known as New Centre (''Nouveau Centre'', NC) and European Social Liberal Party (''Parti Social Libéral Européen'', PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of t ...

and

Union of Democrats and Independents The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a Centrism, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right list of political parties in France, political party in France and former Electoral alliance ...

. Payre, wishing to focus on social entrepreneurship projects over his political commitments, became vice-president of the party, which claimed 12,000 members at the time of Cavada's accession. Cavada quit the party on 29 June 2015 over the lack of internal democracy, forcing Payre to return to the presidency of Nous Citoyens, and on 17 July, Cavada founded the movement

Génération Citoyens Nous Citoyens is a political party in France founded in July 2013 by entrepreneur Denis Payre. The name of the party was chosen a reference to the phrase "Moi président de la République...", repeated by François Hollande against Nicolas Sark ...

with several dissidents of his former party. On 25 January 2016, Nicolas Doucerain was elected to succeed Payre with 59.5% of votes in the first round, with a turnout of about 1,800 votes out of 4,700 activists up-to-date on membership fees. Nous Citoyens did not support any candidate in the 2017 presidential election, and none of the candidates it presented in the 2017 legislative elections under the banner of "577 – The Independents" alongside the party

Territories in Movement Territories in Movement (''Territoires en mouvement'', TeM) is a centre-right political party in France founded in September 2011 by Jean-Christophe Fromantin, the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine. It was a member of the Union of Democrats and Indepen ...

Jean-Christophe Fromantin Jean-Christophe Fromantin, born August 30, 1962 in Nantes, is a French businessman and politician. He has been Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine since 2008. After launching the party Territoires en mouvement, he was elected deputy for the sixth distri ...

advanced to the second round.

References

External links

Official website
{{in lang, fr 2013 establishments in France Liberal parties in France Social liberal parties Political parties established in 2016 Political parties of the French Fifth Republic