Union of Democrats for the Republic

(Union des Démocrates pour la République; UDR), a bourgeois political party in France. The UDR was founded to replace the Union for the New Republic (UNR), created in 1958 by supporters of C. De Gaulle. In 1962 the UNR merged with a grouping of leftist Gaullists, the Democratic Union of Labor (UDT), and until 1967 the combined party was called the UNR-UDT. In 1967 and 1968 the party was called the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic, and from 1968 until 1976 the Union of Democrats for the Republic.

By propagandizing class cooperation in the name of the unity and greatness of France, the UDR won mass voter support for Gaullism. Until 1974 it was the main party in the government of the Fifth Republic. However, after De Gaulle resigned as president in 1969, disagreements arose in the UDR on a number of issues of domestic and foreign policy. As its policies became weak er, the party lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly after the 1973 parliamentary elections. After an unsuccessful race by UDR candidate J. Chaban-Delmas in the presidential election of May 1974, disagreements intensified sharply. In 1976 the party was named the Assembly for the Republic (Rassemblement pour la République). J. Chiraque became the party’s chairman in 1978.