DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (FRANCE)

The 'Democratic Movement' (''Mouvement démocrate'', MoDem) is a centrist and pro-European French political party that was founded by centrist politician François Bayrou to succeed his Union for French Democracy (UDF) and to contest the 2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the 2007 presidential election.^[1]
Initially named "Democratic Party" (''Parti démocrate''), it was renamed "Democratic Movement" ^[2], because there is already a little-known Democratic Party in France and because the initials would be PD, which in French slang means "faggot".^[3]
Traditionally, the UDF had always supported right-wing governments since its creation by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The UDF aligned itself with the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) following its creation in 2002, and even took part in the government coalition in the Senate from 2002 to 2007, though it did not participate in the Cabinet. However, throughout the second term of Jacques Chirac, the UDF became more and more independent from the UMP. On the impetus of its leader François Bayrou, it eventually supported a censure motion along with the Socialist Party.

Contents

History

2007 presidential election

2007 legislative election

Future

Ideology

Leading members

Deputies

Senators

MEPs

Former Deputies

Former Ministers

References

External links

History

2007 presidential election

During the 2007 presidential campaign, François Bayrou advocated a national unity government. Although eliminated in the first round, a high number of voters (over 18%) supported him, partly because of his independence from major parties. Following the election, he founded the Democratic Movement (MoDem) on May 29th to reinforce his strategy of political independence. The MoDem was rallyed by the Union of Radical Republicans.
Some members of the UDF did not agree with this new strategy because the weighted French balloting system would hinder the Democratic Movement from obtaining seats in the legislative elections. These members created the New Centre, continuing their support for the newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy.

2007 legislative election

The Democratic Movement has won 7,61% of the votes in the first round of the 2007 legislative election. The party gained three seats in the National Assembly of France (not including Abdoulatifou Aly who was elected in Mayotte for a party affiliated to the MoDem. He sat with the New Centre for a short while but he is now sitting with the MoDem deputies^[4]). Thierry Benoit, one of the four MPs, has been vocally critical of the party^[5], but he actually sits for the MoDem and defends the movement's policies. He stated that he drew the conclusions of being elected joinly by centre-right and left-wing citizens^[6].

Future

The MoDem is not yet a political party. Candidates in the June 2007 election ran under the UDF-MoDem banner. A founding congress is scheduled for Autumn 2007.

Ideology

During the 2007 presidential election, François Bayrou stressed two points: the need for change and ''ouverture'' to the right/left political system and the need of constitutional reforms in that direction. These will be the central issues of MoDem.
MoDem will be something different from UDF. First, many members left to form the New Centre. Second, some Greens (including a MEP) are to join the new party and also
Corinne Lepage, leader of CAP 21, has stated her desire to work with MoDem in order to re-found political ecology beyond the left-right divide. MoDem will thus be a centre-left party with a different and broader electoral base from the late UDF.
In 2004, François Bayrou launched the European Democratic Party (EDP) along with Francesco Rutelli's Democracy is Freedom – Daisy. In 2005 the EDP created along with the New Democrat Coalition of the United States Democratic Party the Alliance of Democrats, a worldwide network of centrist parties.

Leading members

Deputies

★ Abdoulatifou Aly

★ François Bayrou

★ Thierry Benoît

★ Jean Lassalle

Senators

★ Nicolas About

★ Philippe Arnaud

★ Denis Badré

★ Claude Biwer

★ Catherine Morin-Desailly

★ Marcel Deneux

★ Yves Détraigne

★ Muguette Dini

★ Françoise Férat

★ Christian Gaudin

★ Adrien Giraud

★ Jacqueline Gourault

★ Jean-Jacques Jégou

★ Michel Mercier

★ Philippe Nogrix

★ Daniel Soulage

★ Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe

★ François Zocchetto

MEPs

★ Jean-Luc Bennahmias (formerly Green)

★ Jean-Marie Cavada

★ Thierry Cornillet (member of the Radical Party)

★ Marielle de Sarnez

★ Claire Gibault

★ Nathalie Griesbeck

★ Bernard Lehideux

★ Anne Laperrouze

★ Philippe Morillon

Former Deputies

★ Gilles Artigues (defeated in 2007)

★ Anne-Marie Comparini (defeated in 2007)

★ Gérard Vignoble (stepped down in 2007)

Former Ministers

★ François Bayrou, former Minister of Education

★ Azouz Begag, former Minister of Equality of Chances

★ Corinne Lepage, former Minister of the Environment

References

1. 'Kingmaker' snubs French rivals
2. François Bayrou baptisera son parti "Mouvement démocrate"
3. Le futur «Parti démocrate» de Bayrou existe déjà
4. Assemblée Nationale
5. He indicated that he was elected as a UDF representative, rather than as a MoDem.
6. Pourquoi les députés du MoDem n'ont-ils pas voté la confiance au gouvernement ? in La Croix, 5/7/2007 : « Je n’oublie pas que j’ai été élu par des électeurs de droite et par des électeurs de gauche. En m’abstenant, je ne heurte pas ceux de droite et j’envoie un signe à ceux de gauche. »]

External links

★ Official Website