Union for French Democracy in the context of "Radical Party (France)"

The Democratic Movement (French: Mouvement démocrate, pronounced [muvmɑ̃ demɔkʁat]; MoDem [mɔdɛm]) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was established by François Bayrou to succeed the Union for French Democracy (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! (LRM) — later Renaissance (RE) — in the 2017 legislative election after Bayrou had endorsed the candidacy of Emmanuel Macron in February. The two parties have since been in alliance, as of late named Ensemble.

The Independent Republicans (French: Républicains Indépendants, pronounced [ʁepyblikɛ̃ ɛ̃depɑ̃dɑ̃]; RI) were a liberal-conservative political group in France founded in 1962, which became a political party in 1966 known as the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (Fédération nationale des républicains et indépendants [fedeʁɑsjɔ̃ nɑsjɔnal de ʁepyblikɛ̃ e ɛ̃depɑ̃dɑ̃]; FNRI). Its leader was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

In 1977 it became the Republican Party which joined the Union for French Democracy (UDF) the following year.

The Republican Party (French: Parti républicain, [paʁti ʁepyblikɛ̃], PR) was a liberal-conservative political party in France which existed from 1977 to 1997. Created by the then-President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, it replaced the National Federation of the Independent Republicans which was founded in 1966. It was known to be conservative in domestic, social and economic policies, pro-NATO, pro-G7, and pro-European.

In 1978, the Republican Party allied with centrist groups to form the Union for French Democracy (UDF), a confederation created in order to support President Giscard d'Estaing and counterbalance the influence of the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) over the French centre-right. However, after Giscard d'Estaing's defeat at the 1981 presidential election, the PR gravitated away from its founder and a new generation of politicians, led by François Léotard, took the lead.

Liberal Democracy (French: Démocratie libérale, [demɔkʁasi libeʁal], DL) was a conservative-liberal political party in France which existed from 1997 to 2002. Led by Alain Madelin, it replaced the Republican Party (PR), the classical liberal component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF). It merged into the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) between the two rounds of the 2002 presidential election.

The Centrists (French: Les Centristes, pronounced [le sɑ̃tʁist], LC), known as The Centrists – New Centre (Les Centristes – Nouveau Centre [le sɑ̃tʁist nuvo sɑ̃tʁ], LC-NC) since 2018, formerly known as New Centre (Nouveau Centre, NC) and European Social Liberal Party (Parti Social Libéral Européen [paʁti sɔsjal libeʁal øʁɔpeɛ̃], PSLE), is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) – including 18 of the 29 members of the UDF in the National Assembly) – who did not agree with François Bayrou's decision to found the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and wanted to support the newly-elected president Nicolas Sarkozy, continuing the UDF–Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) alliance.

The party was founded on 29 May 2007 during a press conference and renamed on 11 December 2016.

Presidential elections were held in France on 26 April 1981, with a second round on 10 May. François Mitterrand defeated incumbent president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to become the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic. It was the first presidential election in French history where an incumbent president actively seeking reelection was denied a second term.

In the first round of voting on 26 April 1981, a political spectrum of ten candidates stood for election, and the leading two candidates – Mitterrand and Giscard d'Estaing – advanced to a second round. Mitterrand and his Socialist Party received 51.76% of the vote, while Giscard and his Union for French Democracy trailed with about 48.24%, a margin of 1,065,956 votes.

At age 69, Jacques Chirac faced his fourth campaign for the French Presidency in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one voter in five in the first round of voting of the presidential elections of April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin on the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of the law-and-order, anti-immigrant National Front, and won re-election by a landslide; most parties outside the National Front had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared.

The left-wing Socialist Party being in thorough disarray following Jospin's defeat, Chirac reorganized politics on the right, establishing a new party — initially called the Union of the Presidential Majority, then the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The RPR had broken down – a number of members had formed Eurosceptic breakaways; while the Giscardian liberals of the Union of French Democracy (UDF) had moved sharply to the right. The UMP won the parliamentary elections that followed the presidential poll with ease.