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Union pour un Mouvement Populaire
Leader	Collegial leadership composed of Patrick Devedjian, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Pierre Méhaignerie
Founded	November 17, 2002
Headquarters	55, rue La Boétie 75384 Paris Cedex 08
Political Ideology	Conservatism, Christian Democracy, Liberalism
European Affiliation	European People's Party
International Affiliation	Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union
Colours	Blue, Red
National Assembly	313 (2007)
Senate	155 (group 2005)
EU Parliament	17
Website	www.u-m-p.org
See also	Constitution of France France Politics French Parliament French Government French President Political parties Elections

The Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP), is the main French centre-right political party.

Founded in 2002, the party has an absolute majority in the National Assembly and the Senate. Its candidate Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of France in 2007. The UMP is a member of the European People's Party (EPP), of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and of the International Democrat Union (IDU).

Contents 1 History 2 Factions 2.1 Associate parties 3 Major officeholders 4 Leadership 4.1 Presidents 4.2 Vice-Presidents 4.3 General Secretaries 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their 1981 and 1988 electoral defeats. Some politicians advocated the formation of a confederation, a party.

Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. But it was divided between the followers of Jacques Chirac and the supporters of Edouard Balladur. After their defeat of the 1997 legislative election, the right-wing parties created the Alliance for France.

Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Chirac who were divided in three right-wing parliamentary parties, founded an association, named Union on the Move (Union en mouvement)^[1]. After Chirac's re-election, in order to prepare the legislative election, the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la majorité présidentielle) was created. It was re-named Union for a Popular Movement some months later, establishing the UMP as a permanent organization rather than simply as the umbrella organization for Jacques Chirac's supporters^[1].

UMP was founded from the merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR), the conservative-liberal Liberal Democracy (DL), and a sizeable portion of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF), more precisely many Christian Democrats (such as Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Barrot), the social-liberal Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy (both associate parties to UDF until 2002).

The party was thus born out of the meeting of four major French political traditions: Gaullism, Liberalism (Republicanism), Christian Democracy (Popularism) and Radicalism.

As indicated by its initial name, the UMP generally supported the policies of President Jacques Chirac. However, in 2004, the party showed increasing signs of independence. The unpopularity with the electorate of Jacques Chirac and Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government led most members of the UMP to support Nicolas Sarkozy, a rival of Chirac. The party also publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had previously endorsed several times publicly.

The first president of the UMP, Alain Juppé, a close associate of Jacques Chirac, resigned on 15 July 2004 after being convicted of political corruption in January of the same year. On 29 November 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would officially take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation.

In the 2004 French regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, securing only 2 out of 22 regions in Metropolitan France and half of the departments. This led to the fall of the Jean-Pierre Raffarin government (2001-04), and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin.

On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. In the second round he faced Socialist Candidate Ségolène Royal. On 6 May 2007 he won the presidential election, garnering 53.06% of the vote. As a consequence, he resigned from the presidency of the UMP on 14 May 2007, two days before becoming President of the French Republic.

On 17 June 2007, in the legislative elections, UMP again gained a majority in the National Assembly, but with 313 out of 577 seats less than expected following opinion polls.

• Liberal Conservatives (conservatives, liberal-conservatives, conservative-liberals): Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Édouard Balladur, Dominique Bussereau, Michel Barnier, Dominique Perben, Jean-François Mattei, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Charles Millon, Alain Lamassoure, Brice Hortefeux, François Baroin, Rachida Dati, Joseph Daul, Bernard Accoyer, Margie Sudre, Marie-Hélène Descamps

• The Reformers (classical liberals, libertarians): Hervé Novelli, Gérard Longuet, Alain Madelin, Patrick Devedjian, Jean-Pierre Soisson, Jean-Pierre Gorges, Claude Goasguen, Pierre Lellouche, Luc Chatel, Louis Giscard d'Estaing, Jean-Jacques Descamps

• Democratic and Popular (christian-democrats, centrists): Philippe Douste-Blazy, Pierre Méhaignerie, Adrien Zeller, Jacques Barrot, Nicole Fontaine, Pierre-André Wiltzer, Marc-Philippe Daubresse, Alain Joyandet, Antoine Herth

• Neo-Gaullistes (rightish Gaullistes, secular-minded conservatives): Jacques Chirac, Dominique de Villepin, Alain Juppé, Jean-Louis Debré, Michèle Alliot-Marie, Patrick Ollier, François Baroin, Jean Tiberi, Xavier Bertrand, Xavier Darcos, Valérie Pécresse, Christine Albanel, Éric Wœrth, Roger Karoutchi, Josselin de Rohan, Adrien Gouteyron, Yves Jego

• Social-Gaullistes (leftish Gaullistes, social-democrats): François Fillon, Roselyne Bachelot, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Hamlaoui Mekachera, Philippe Dechartre, Jean Matteoli, Bernard Reygrobellet, Yves Guéna, Alain Terrenoire, Jean Peyrelevade

• Radicals and Centrists (social-liberals): André Rossinot, François Loos, Jean-Louis Borloo, Renaud Dutreil, Serge Lepeltier

• Democratic Convention (centrists, christian-democrats, liberals): Hervé de Charette

• The Free Right (conservative liberals, libertarians, souverainists): Rachid Kaci, Alexandre Del Valle, Étienne Blanc, François d'Aubert

• Forum of Social Republicans (social-conservatives, christian-democrats): Christine Boutin, Jean-Frédéric Poisson, Charles de Champeaux

• National Centre of Independents (conservative-liberals, national-conservatives, souverainists): Philippe Dominati, Christian Vanneste

• Rally for France (national-conservatives, souverainists): Charles Pasqua, Lionnel Luca, Jacques Myard, Jean-Jacques Guillet, Philippe Pemezec

• Blue Ecologie (centrist-ecologists): Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Patrice Hernu

The Radical Party (whose members are divided between UMP and UDF ^[2]), the Forum of Social Republicans, Arise the Republic, the National Centre of Independents, the Rally for France and Blue Ecologie are associate parties to UMP.

• Nicolas Sarkozy (President of the Republic)
• François Fillon (Prime Minister)
• Bernard Accoyer (President of the National Assembly)
• Christian Poncelet (President of Senate)
• Jean-Louis Debré (President of the Constitutional Council)

• Alain Juppé (2002−2004)
• Nicolas Sarkozy (2004−2007)

In July 2007, the presidency was replaced by a collegial leadership composed of General Secretary Patrick Devedjian and Vice-Presidents Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Jean-Claude Gaudin and Pierre Méhaignerie. Jean-Claude Gaudin declared that "Nicolas Sarkozy remains, morally, President of the UMP"; the Party endorsed this statement by not chosing a nominal leader as replacement for Sarkozy.

• Jean-Claude Gaudin (2002−...)
• Jean-Pierre Raffarin (2007-...)
• Pierre Méhaignerie (2007-...)

• Philippe Douste-Blazy (2002−2004)
• Pierre Méhaignerie (2004−2007)
• Patrick Devedjian (2007-...)

• Politics of France
• List of political parties in France

• (French) UMP official website

v • d • e Political parties in France
Far-right parties	National Front(FN) – National Republican Movement (MNR)– Movement for France (MPF)
Conservative parties	Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) – Forum of Social Republicans (FRS) – Rally for France (RPF) National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP)
Centrist parties	Radical Party (Rad) – Democratic Movement (MoDem) – New Centre (PSLE) - Union for French Democracy (UDF)
Greens	CAP 21 – The Greens (Verts) – Ecology Generation (GE) – Independent Ecological Movement (MEI)
Leftwing parties	Socialist Party (PS) – Left Radical Party (PRG) – Citizen and Republican Movement (MRC) - French Communist Party (PCF)
Far-left parties	Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) – Workers' Struggle (LO) – Workers' Party (PT)
Other parties	Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition (CPNT) – Liberal Alternative (AL)
Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of France