The Union for the Defence of the Republic ( ), after 1968 renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic ( ), commonly abbreviated UDR, was a
Gaullist that existed from 1967 to 1976.
The UDR was the successor to
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
's earlier party, the
Rally of the French People, and was organised in 1958, along with the founding of the
Fifth Republic as the
Union for the New Republic (UNR), and in 1962 merged with the
Democratic Union of Labour, a
left-wing Gaullist group. In 1967 it was joined by some Christian Democrats to form the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic, later dropping the 'Fifth'. After the
May 1968 crisis, it formed a right-wing coalition named Union for the Defense of the Republic (UDR); it was subsequently renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic, retaining the abbreviation UDR, in October 1968.
Under de Gaulle's successor
Georges Pompidou it promoted the Gaullist movement. It dissolved in 1976, and its successor was the
Rally for the Republic (RPR) founded by
Jacques Chirac.
Senate Groups since 1959
/ref>
Secretaries-general
*1968–71: Robert Poujade
*1971–72: René Tomasini
*1972–73: Alain Peyrefitte
*1973–74: Alexandre Sanguinetti
*1974–75: Jacques Chirac
*1975–76: André Bord
*1976: Yves Guéna
Election results
Presidential
National Assembly
See also
* Gaullist Party
References
Further reading
*S, major scholarly history of France
* Hibbs, Douglas A., and Nicholas Vasilatos. "Economics and Politics in France: Economic Performance and Mass Political Support for Presidents Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing." ''European Journal of Political Research'' (1981) 9#2 pp: 133-145
online
* Wilson, Frank L. "Gaullism without de Gaulle," ''Western Political Quarterly'' (1973) 26#3 pp. 485–50
in JSTOR
Defunct political parties in France
Political parties of the French Fifth Republic
Right-wing parties in France
Conservative parties in France
1967 establishments in France
Political parties disestablished in 1976
Presidency of Charles de Gaulle
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