The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement réformateur, MR) was a French centrist political alliance created in 1971 by the
Radical Party (PR) led by
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, often referred to as JJSS (13 February 19247 November 2006), was a French journalist and politician. He co-founded ''L'Express'' in 1953 with Françoise Giroud, and then went on to become president of the Radica ...
, and the Christian-democratic
Democratic Centre (CD) headed by
Jean Lecanuet
Jean Adrien François Lecanuet (4 March 1920 – 22 February 1993) was a French centrist politician.
Biography
Lecanuet was born to a family of modest means in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and gravitated towards philosophy studies. He received his di ...
.
The first convention of the movement was held on 3 November 1971 in
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
. In addition to the two major components, the Reformist Movement was joined by the
Republican Centre led by
André Morice (that had split from the Radical Party during the
Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
); as well as two anti-communist breakaway groups from 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 th ...
, namely
Émile Muller
Émile Muller (20 April 1915, Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin – 11 November 1988) was a French politician from Alsace. He was the candidate of the Democratic Socialist Movement of France in the 1974 French presidential election, where he won only 0.69% o ...
's "Party of Socialist Democracy" and
Max Lejeune
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
's "Democratic-Socialist Movement of France" (that later became the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
). The tiny parties "Progress and Freedom" of
Jacques Soustelle
Jacques Soustelle (3 February 1912 – 6 August 1990) was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces, a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria, an anthropologist s ...
and "European Liberal Party" of
Jean-Paul David
Jean-Paul David, (14 December 1912 – 31 July 2007), was a French politician. He was mayor of Mantes-la-Jolie between 1947 and 1977 and deputy for Seine-et-Oise (later Yvelines).
Youth and early career
Son of Ernest-Henri David (municipal c ...
were linked to the movement as well, but not invited to the founding convention at the request of
Pierre Abelin.
The movement proposed to form a third alternative between the rightist "Presidential Majority" of
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...
, dominated by the
Gaullists
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 withd ...
, on the one hand, and the "
Union of the Left" comprising the Socialist and Communist parties on the other hand. However, the more leftist faction of the Radical Party (the nascent "Movement of the Radical Socialist Left" led by
Robert Fabre
Robert Fabre (21 December 1915 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Aveyron – 23 December 2006 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Aveyron) was a French politician and pharmacist.
He was a founding member of the Left Radical Movement (MRG) in 1972 and ...
, that later became the
Radical Party of the Left
The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Soc ...
) refused the alliance with the Christian Democrats and joined the Union of the Left instead.
The rivalry of the two main parties and its leaders Lecanuet and Servan-Schreiber destabilised the alliance, its components remained largely independent.
In the first round of the
1973 legislative election, it won 12.5 percent of votes, trailing far behind the two major camps. Due to the
majoritarian electoral system, their candidates qualified for the run-off in only a few constituencies. Thanks to withdrawal agreements with the right-wing parties, however, the Reformist Movement succeeded in forming a parliamentary group of 30 members and 4 affiliated, called the "Social Democratic Reformers" (''Réformateurs démocrates sociaux'', RDS).
One year later, the Reformist Movement's components supported the winning candidacy of
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.
After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...
, leader of the conservative-liberal
Independent Republicans, at the
1974 presidential election. The member parties of the MR joined Giscard's centre-right government. In July 1974, the RDS parliamentary group merged with the
Centrist Union group (formerly allied with the Gaullists) to form the "Reformers, Centrists and Social Democrats" (RCDS) group. The Reformist Movement itself became inactive. In 1978, the constituent parties of the former Reformist Movement, together with Giscard d'Estaing's Independent Republicans, formed the centre-right
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 c ...
(UDF).
See also
*
:Reformist Movement (France) politicians
References
{{Authority control
Political parties of the French Fifth Republic
Political parties established in 1971
1971 establishments in France