Radical Party (France)

The Radical Party (French: Parti radical) is a French social liberal political party founded in 1901 as the Radical Party and Radical Socialist. In 1971 it suffered a split from its socialist wing that later founded the Radical Left Party, after this split the party decided to change its name to its current name, although legally it remains the same party, including its historical headquarters in the Valois square., in Paris.

French radicals have historically positioned themselves in the political center, although since the radical-socialist split they have tended to strengthen their relations with the parties of the French center-right. In this way it was one of the electorally associated parties with the Union for French Democracy in 1978 and the Union for a Popular Movement in 2002.

Ideology

The official ideology of the radical party is Radicalism that focuses on the historical rejection of the constitutional Monarchy and a marked anti-clericalism that defends the Separation between Church and State, based on the principles of a secular and secular Humanism. Since they entered the Union as a federated sector by a popular movement, the radicals have turned towards Social Liberalism. Part of this is evidenced in the party's emphasis on administrative reforms and the protection of individual liberties.

The Radical Party is openly European, and peculiarly has nuances close to market environmentalism.

History

Summary

It is an organization that comes from the radical republicans, who were the extreme left at the time of the July Monarchy (a historical period that developed in France from 1830 to 1848), and from radicalism.

It was particularly influential during the Third Republic (France, between 1870 and 1940). Very attached to private property and secularism, in favor of a free trade customs regime, it became an intermediary party between the left and the right, susceptible to allying with the socialists or the conservatives depending on the circumstances.

During the legislative elections of 1902, they were at the head of the leftist bloc in the legislative elections of 1902, participated in the government of Émile Combes and notably succeeded, after the fall of Combes, in passing the French Law of separation from the Church and the State of 1905.

From 1905, with the rise of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), radicals began to occupy a position considered more central in the political spectrum.

The party was particularly influential in the interwar period, participating in almost every government of that period. In 1936, their influence declined in favor of the socialists, and the radicals contributed to the fall of the Popular Front, by renewing themselves with austerity measures, denounced by the SFIO and the Communist Party.

The bipolarization of French political life at the time of the Fifth Republic (France, since 1958) led to the marginalization of radicalism, which split in 1972, when a minority of its members formed a new party anchored on the left, signatory to the common program with the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party (France): the Parti Radical de Gauche.

On the other hand, the majority, the Radical Party, between 1979 and 2002, was part of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), as an associated party, then, between 2002 and 2011, of the Union for a Movement Popular (UMP), then, since 2011, as part of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI).

In 2017, the Radical Party, which had become the oldest political party in France, joined the Parti Radical de Gauche (PRG) within the Mouvement Radical at a "reunification of the radicals" congress. After being put on hold, the Radical Party is relaunched in 2021.

Structuring of radicalism in the 19th century

Radicals have existed ideologically since the early XIX century, with great political figures such as Alexandre Ledru-Rollin and Louis Blanc. But one could easily find traces of its existence in the very sources of the French Revolution of 1789, in the Enlightenment and mainly in Voltaire and Nicolas de Condorcet.

The name "radical" It comes from the fact that this current of thought brought together the radical republicans, who lived in Parliament with the moderate republicans and the three monarchical currents. His political philosophy throughout his history will be strongly influenced by Freemasonry, of which several of the radical political figures are members.

In 1843, under the July Monarchy (France, between 1830 and 1848), radicals rallied around Alexandre Ledru-Rollin and participated in the advent of the Second Republic (France, between 1848 and 1852). They support the great reforms of 1848: introduction of universal male suffrage, abolition of slavery, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly.

The radicals opposed the regime of Napoleon III and found a leader in 1868 in the person of Léon Gambetta (who published La Politique radicale in 1863, a collection of speeches summarizing radical doctrine). His program took shape in a speech by Gambetta, the Programme de Belleville, delivered in 1869.

On September 4, 1870, the Third Republic (France, between 1870 and 1940) was proclaimed, following the defeat of the Empire against Prussia at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. The radicals, however, had to compose with the Orléanists (royalists), led by Adolphe Thiers, who had defeated the Paris Commune, while France had part of its territories controlled by Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian War]] (see: Treaty of Frankfurt).

After the Franco-Prussian war, radicalism was perceived as too advanced a school of thought by voters in rural areas, who preferred a moderate monarchy, which in their eyes guaranteed greater political stability.

From January 30, 1879, when Jules Grévy assumed the Presidency of France, the radicals incarnated particularly anti-clericalism and opposition to the colonial expansion of France.

Georges Clemenceau was one of the most prominent figures of radicalism, despite not having participated in the creation of the Parti Radical in 1901.

Creation and role until 1918

Between June 21 and 23, 1901, the Founding Congress of the Parti Radical et Radical-Socialiste took place, shortly before the adoption of the laws of July 1901 on freedom of association. Until then, in fact, there were only parliamentary groups of different political tendencies and local electoral committees with even more varied conceptions. The idea was to bring together at the national level, in the same party, elected officials and activists of the same trend.

The new party grew out of several rival tendencies. It is a heterogeneous assembly of electoral committees, Masonic lodges, sections of the League of Human Rights, of the French League of Education, whose leftist tendency seems to be the majority at that time.

When the new party was founded, the closing declaration of this first congress, read by Camille Pelletan, served as the axis of the political program claimed by the radicals during the first years of the century XX.

This declaration therefore insisted on the union of the left, the nationalization of the big monopolies, the Church-State Separation and the creation of an egalitarian tax based on income. This program was applied partially during the following years, taking advantage of an alliance in the National Assembly of France between the socialists (of Jean Jaurès) and the radicals (who put Émile Combes in the government). This period was marked by the harsh struggle against religious congregations, most of which were expelled.

Following its success in the 1902 French legislative elections, it became the "fundamental" of the Third Republic (France, between 1870 and 1940) and initiated several important reforms:

• the French Law of Separation of the Church and the State of 1905, which had among its architects: Émile Combes, but which was finally implemented in a less rigid way by Aristide Briand, then a republican-socialist (independent socialist);
• the creation of the Ministry of Labour in 1906;
• the institution of Sunday rest in 1906;
• the creation of the first system of workers' and peasant pensions, in 1910;
• the creation of the income tax, in 1914, according to the bill of Joseph Caillaux;
• the introduction of free secondary education.

In 1907, at the Nancy Congress, the party finally adopted a true political program (presented by a commission whose rapporteur was Édouard Herriot). Clearly anchored to the left, confirmed by the Congress of Pau (France) in 1913, this program, after some dusting off, will be the cornerstone of the political program of this party for more than half a century. He advocates a secular and anticlerical policy, marked by the action of the President of the Council Émile Combes (1902-1905) that will lead to the laws of separation of Church and State adopted with the effective support of the socialist deputy Aristide Briand.

Radicals praise private property: they see employee access to property as the remedy for the problems of industrial society.

During World War I, Georges Clemenceau leads the country to victory. He is still anti-clerical but does not belong to the radical party and no longer identifies as such although he retains a sulphurous image in the eyes of the clericals.

In the interwar period

The Radical party had its heyday between the wars, when it had considerable weight in French political life. Thus, of the forty-two successive governments during this period, thirteen were led by radicals (four governments: Camille Chautemps; three governments: Édouard Daladier and Édouard Herriot; two governments: Albert Sarraut and one government: Théodore Steeg).

Its action continues to be predominant in the field of education thanks to two of its main figures: Édouard Herriot and Jean Zay. As a direct consequence of this action, many intellectuals are members or sympathizers of the party (such as the philosopher Alain).

Internally, the life of the party was marked by the conflictive oppositions Herriot-Caillaux and then Herriot-Daladier. In addition, the constitution of a "Radical Left" within the party itself, a movement that brings together parliamentarians who reject party discipline, marks the progressive anchoring of this parliamentary party on the left.

But what makes this period between the two wars curious, on a national level, is the sudden political shift of the Radical party in the early 1930s.

In effect, in the early 1920s, the radical party advocated a left-wing policy that included driving the right from power, restoring secularism to the state, expanding school laws, practicing an international policy of détente, and of conciliation to consolidate peace, and, finally, restore the balance of public finances.

The 1920s was also the decade of the arrival of the "Young Turks" (trend of the radical party that defended the intervention of the State in the economy), among which we can mention: Pierre Mendès France, Jean Zay, Pierre Cot, Jacques Kayser and Émile Roche. In 1927, Édouard Daladier, one of the "Young Turks" of the party, he succeeded Édouard Herriot at the head of the party.

With the return of Édouard Herriot to the head of the party in 1931, the Radical Party set out on a new path. It remains, and claims to be, a left-wing party, which naturally leads it to practice "republican discipline," but, in government, it behaves like a "golden mean" party. 34;, able to unite around itself the majority of French attached to a traditional Republic, far from the extremes, whether reactionary or revolutionary.

On the one hand, he headed the government of the Cartel des Gauches (1924-1926), on the other, after having participated in the development and establishment of the Popular Front (France) in 1936, he was who buried in 1938. But this contradictory politics pushes the radical party, when it is in power, to immobility due to the permanent contradiction between its majority and its politics. When he tries to get out of this immobility, governments are immediately overthrown. The result of this political paralysis was the riot of February 6, 1934, which led to the same conclusion as the financial panic of 1926: the radicals were driven from power in favor of the right. They returned there in 1936 thanks to the Popular Front concerted with the SFIO and the PCF.

In fact, the radicals are divided on the question of their alliances. A left wants union with the other left parties while a right prefers "concentration", that is, an alliance with parliamentarians from the center and center right. The right is hostile to the Popular Front and even more so to the Communist Party. Among them are radicals like Senator Joseph Caillaux, who overthrew the cabinet of Léon Blum in 1937, or Émile Roche. Some left the party out of anti-communism, such as Édouard Pfeiffer in 1935.

These divisions feed divisions. Left radicals founded the radical-socialist Camille Pelletan Party in 1934, with Gabriel Cudenet. Right-wing anti-communist dissidents founded the French Radical Party in 1936, chaired by André Grisoni.

During the interwar period, the ideas defended by this party constituted a whole with which a large part of the French people recognized themselves. In the first place, a deep attachment to the nation and the republican regime, identified with the parliamentary system, then a conception of the Republic that firmly integrates, even intransigently, secularism, established as one of the foundations of the Republic, whose The education provided by the school is the engine of social progress. Everything is mixed with a humanitarian conception of society and politics.

World War II

With the Occupation of France by Nazi Germany, on July 10, 1940, the majority of the parliamentarians of the Radical Party, like the majority of parliamentarians, voted for full constituent powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain. Others abstain or do not participate in the vote, in particular those who left on board the Massilia. A minority is opposed: among the 80 parliamentarians who refused to vote for full powers, there are 13 radicals. Vincent Badie, in particular, drafts a protest against the dictatorship he envisions. Trying to get on stage at the Vichy Grand Casino where Parliament is in session, he is prevented from speaking under the rules.

Under the Occupation, many radicals fell victim to the Vichy Regime, which sought out those responsible for the defeat among the former ministers of the Third Republic (France, between 1870 and 1940), therefore:

• Édouard Herriot was dismissed from his term as mayor of Lyon;
• Edouard Daladier submits to the Riom Judgment;
• Jean Zay and Maurice Sarraut are killed by the French Militia.

Several radicals resolutely threw themselves into the French Resistance, led by Jean Moulin, Émile Bollaert, but also Jean Zay, Pierre Mendès France, Henri Queuille, Paul Anxionnaz, René Mayer and René Cassin (future editor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

On the other hand, a section of the radical party also supports Philippe Pétain or Pierre Laval.

During the Fourth Republic

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Radical Party was associated with the failure of the Third Republic (France, between 1870 and 1940) and competed for the votes of center-left voters with the Mouvement Républicain Populaire e with the SFIO. In this context, they obtained 10% of the votes in the 1945 elections.

After that, he decided to join the Rassemblement des Gauches Républicaines with various centrist and liberal formations, to participate in the June 1946 elections.

From May 1947, with the exclusion of the French Communist Party from the government coalition, the Radical Party once again became a fundamental element of the government. Despite everything, it stabilized between 10 and 11% of the electorate. From then on, the radicals populated the ministerial cabinets and obtained several presidencies of the Council throughout the Fourth Republic (France, between 1946 and 1958). They also presided over all the assemblies of the Republic: National Assembly of France (Édouard Herriot), Conseil de la République (Gaston Monnerville), Conseil Économique, Social et Environnemental (Émile Roche) and Assemblée de l'Union française (Albert Sarraut).

At the same time, the party experienced many internal dissensions. Left-wing activists like Pierre Cot founded the Union Progressiste. In the leadership of the party, the neo-radical current (dominant since 1939), which advocates the rejection of interventionism, the strengthening of liberalism and anti-communism, leans more and more to the right.

However, on July 31, 1954, Pierre Mendès-France, then Président du Conseil des Ministres, delivered the Carthage Speech, which reversed this trend, leading the party to take more on the left.

In May 1955, the tendency led by Pierre Mendès France took control of the party. Its objective is to modernize the party by refocusing on the ideological sources of radicalism4 (democracy and realistic social policy) and rejuvenating and energizing the aging apparatus.

The political orientation now leans towards an alliance with left-wing parties. Thus, during the 1956 elections, Mendès France led the Front Républicain in which we also find the SFIO and the Union Démocratique et Socialiste de la Résistance (UDSR). However, despite an electoral success, it is the socialist Guy Mollet who becomes president of the Council. PMF, who is Minister of State in the Mollet government, resigns after a few months due to differences in Algerian politics.

At the same time, repeated crises rocked the party. In December 1955, Edgar Faure was expelled for opposing Mendès France's electoral strategy. In October 1956, the right wing of the party dissented and founded the Centre Républicain. In 1957, Mendès France was finally forced to resign from his position as vice-president for failing to obtain voting discipline from parliamentarians.

Supports the European construction and promotes a decolonization that wants to be reasoned and progressive. Despite personalities such as Henri Queuille, Edgar Faure, Félix Gaillard or Pierre Mendès France, the party is somewhat marginalized in the political spectrum and experiences strong internal dissensions, between its left wing and its "centrist" that is getting closer and closer to the center-right parties.

Early years of the Fifth Republic: evolution towards the center-right

During the Fifth Republic (France, since 1958) there was a strong electoral decline of the Radical Party (8.4% in 1958 and 7.1% in 1962 and 6.0% in the municipal elections of 1964), after that his left wing fervently opposed the return to power of General de Gaulle and the approval of the French Constitution of 1958.

1958-1965: ambivalence and then opposition to de Gaulle's return to power

Faced with the crisis of May 1958 and the return to power of General de Gaulle, the radicals divided. In July, the Mendesista left, opposed to the new regime, left the party and created the Union des Forces Démocratiques. Weakened, the radical party could only elect, in the 1958 elections, 13 deputies and, with 8.8% of the votes, while since the war it had obtained between 10 and 11% of the votes.

On May 27, 1959, with the resignation of Jean Berthoin, Minister of the Interior, Jean Berthoin, Minister of the Interior, resigned from the government of Michel Debré: the radical party went into opposition.

In the 1962 elections, the Radical party participated in the "cartel del no" (member of the Rassemblement Sémocratique) and won 23 elected deputies with 7.1% of the vote.

In 1964, the left wing of the party formed a think tank, the Atelier Républicain, marking the beginning of the dissensions that would come to light in the following decade.

1965-1969: Realignment with the left with the participation in the FGDS of Mitterrand and the Mendès-Defferre formula

Between 1965 and 1968 he participated, with the SFIO, in the Fédération de la Gauche Démocrate et Socialiste (FGDS). Its de facto positioning in the center, its tradition of the left, its leaning to the right, make it difficult to read for voters whose votes are now organized in two distinct blocs: on the right around the Gaullists, and on the left and extreme left around socialists and communists.

Pierre Mendès France, after his failure to maintain the left party and his "disillusionment" in the presidential elections of 1969 (within the alliance that he had formed with Gaston Defferre (SFIO) that did not get past the first round), he definitively distanced himself from the party to join the ranks of the future Socialist Party (France).

1970-1972: New push to the center-right with "JJSS" and departure of the "left radicals"

On May 7, 1969, the party acted in its reorientation with the vote of the executive committee in support of Alain Poher (Centre Démocrate) for the presidential election. Harassed by the communist Jacques Duclos in the first round, the interim president of the Republic was clearly defeated by Georges Pompidou at the end of the second round.

The party experienced a new impetus with the arrival at its head, on October 29, 1969, of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber (known as JJSS), passionate about the United States model and who, although he was a man of left, was the architect of the passage to the center right of the party.

Then, during the Suresnes Congress (October 15-17, 1971), two tendencies clashed: that of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, in favor of an alliance strategy of a reforming centrism (431 votes), and that of Maurice Faure, supporter of alliances with the left and extreme left (237 votes). Thus, in 1972, one part followed its leader by joining the Mouvement Réformateur, the other created, under the leadership of Robert Fabre, the Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche (MRG), signatory of the Programme Commun (of the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party), and who later supported a single candidacy of the left and extreme left, that of François Mitterrand, for the 1974 presidential elections.

For Frédéric Fogacci, a historian specializing in radicalism and director of studies at the Charles-de-Gaulle Foundation, “the rupture of 1972 occurred at the moment of the union of the left. Its president at the time, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, refused to ally with the communists. But those who locally needed the votes of the left to win the legislative elections of 1973 divided to save their seats. They were more local strategies than ideological discrepancies.

It is from this date that the adjective “Valoisien” was added to the name of the Radical Party (from the Place de Valois where its national headquarters are located) to distinguish it from MRG.

1973-1978: union with Lecanuet's centrists within the Reform Movement

In 1971, he joined the reformist movement and allied himself with the Mouvement Réformateur, a coalition headed by the Centre Démocrate, a splinter of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP), led by Jean Lecanuet. Opposed to an electoral alliance with the communists but still anti-Gaullists, the radicals supported the main social reforms of the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (authorization of the contraceptive pill, recognition of women's rights) and demanded a new organization territory of France for the benefit of local authorities.

In 1978, the Centre Républicain and the Parti Liberal Européen, stemming from former splits on the party's right, rejoined the Parti Radical.

This new dynamic fueled by "JJSS" thanks to his surprise victory in 1970 against a Gaullist deputy, however, it ended in failure, the latter experiencing several successive electoral setbacks (less than 2% in the 1979 European elections).

1978-2002: part of the Union Pour la Démocratie Française (UDF)

The party maintained its influence due to its involvement in the creation of the Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF), in which it also participated:

• the Centre des Démocrates Sociaux;
• the liberals of Parti Républicain and the Convention démocrate – Fédération des Clubs Perspectives et Réalités;
• Social Democrats Mouvement Démocrate-Docialiste and Adhérents Directs de l'UDF.

In 1978, Robert Fabre, founder and president of the MRG, was expelled for having approached Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. He created a Fédération de la Démocratie Radicale which, however, did not adhere to the UDF or the Radical Party.

Through the UDF, the radical party will participate in all governments resulting from Rassemblement pour la République (RPR)/UDF majorities. However, its visibility, particularly in the media, is reduced by the marginal role it appears to play within the UDF, along with its two main components (Republican Party and CDS). The arrival of the left to power also gives greater visibility to the MRG, which, although closely linked electorally to the Socialist Party, will appear more independent because it does not belong to a confederation of parties.

In 1998, the UDF experienced a major split with the departure of the Démocratie Libérale (LD - formerly known as: Parti Républicain), after regional elections that saw the formation of alliances between the Rassemblement National and certain members of DL.

The Radical Party remained a member of the UDF together with the centrists of Force Démocrate who merged shortly after with the direct members and several other small centrist parties that were members of the formation. This internal fusion marginalizes the radical party, several of whose leaders distance themselves from the national leadership of the UDF headed by François Bayrou and his line, which claims to constitute a centrist force independent of the right and the left.

2002-2011: party associated with the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), revived by Jean-Louis Borloo

In 2002, most of the radicals participated in the creation of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) after the re-election of Jacques Chirac. The radical party then left the UDF to sign an association agreement with the UMP. It remains a fully-fledged party, but its funding consists mainly of subsidies paid by the UMP with which affiliation is now common. This allows the radical party to maintain direct links with its members, contributions and its separate legal personality from the UMP.

In 2003, André Rossinot proposed to Jean-Louis Borloo (former direct member of the New UDF from 1998 to 2002) to join the party to share the co-chairmanship with him.

Member of the UMP, the Radical Party "Valoisien" he wants a "progressive policy that advocates equal opportunities, secularism and respect for human values," in the words of Jean-Louis Borloo, elected sole president in 2005.

In 2005, the Radical Party experienced the mobilization of several former centrists such as Renaud Dutreil or Françoise Hostalier, but also Gaullists such as Serge Lepeltier, who apparently sought a less liberal and less Sarkozyist space for expression than within the UMP.

In 2007, the party claimed 8,000 members, including 500 Jeunes Radicaux.

Thanks to the reform of the statutes, approved during the congress of November 2007, members can now elect their president for a term of three years, renewable once. Previously, the president was chosen by the party's 1,400 delegates.

In the 2007 legislative elections, the party presented 37 candidates, of which 16 were elected deputies.

In the 2008 municipal elections, the Party presented 2,000 candidates and 14 heads of lists in towns with more than 30,000 inhabitants such as Antibes, Valenciennes, Perpignan, Bourges, Montélimar, Bayonne, Saint-Étienne and Nancy.

The 2008 senatorial elections were difficult for the party since of the eight senators in 2004, only six were elected representatives. Figures like Pierre Laffitte, Gilbert Baumet, Dominique Paillé, Yves Coussain, Xavier de Roux, Thierry Cornillet were beaten and Georges Mouly did not represent himself.

In the 2009 European elections, the party made joint lists with the UMP. The party was then led by Jean-Louis Borloo and André Rossinot, then, since November 2007, by Borloo alone. As of the 2007 Congress, the party recovered part of its independence, the affiliates no longer systematically have the double PR/UMP affiliation, they are the ones who choose.

During the senatorial elections of September 25, 2011, the party won two senators thanks to the victory of Vincent Delahaye and Christian Namy, but the outgoing senator Jean-Paul Alduy is not re-elected and Alain Merly, Yves Jégo and Gérard Trémège they were defeated, this increased the number of radical senators to 7.

This association with the UMP ended on May 14, 2011, when the party decided to break away from the UMP and join the Confédération des Centres. Although the contract that linked the members of the radical party with the UMP ended on December 31, 2011, the two parties continue to tolerate double affiliation.

2007: failed attempt to approach the PRG

In May 2007, Jean-Michel Baylet (Parti Radical de Gauche - PRG) and Jean-Louis Borloo (Radical Party) expressed their desire to merge the two movements.

Following the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President of the Republic, the two radical parties regularly advocate a reunion, be it Jean-Michel Baylet in May 2007 in Le Monde or André Rossinot in September 2008 in Le Figaro.

In September 2007, the two branches of French radicalism celebrated their summer university with an exchange of delegations (that of the PRG in Nancy among the valoisiens, and that of the radical party in Ramatuelle among its left-wing counterparts).

On November 16 and 17, 2007, the 108th congress of the radical party took place: the leaders of the two parties spoke openly of rapprochement to occupy the center of French political life. A united radical force would have effectively competed with the Mouvement Démocrate and the Nouveau Centre.

2011-2017: Foundation of ARES, after the Union des Démocrates et Indépendants (UDI)

Participation in the creation of a "confederation of centers"

On April 7, 2011, Jean-Louis Borloo announced on France 2 in the program À Vous de Juger, the creation of a "republican, ecological and social alliance" that he would gather "before the summer" several center-right political parties (Radical Party, Nouveau Centre) and center-left (La Gauche Moderne). This formation would be positioned as an "alternative to the PS and the UMP". He also confirmed that its creation would lead the Radical Party to leave the UMP and the alliance should have a candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.

The integration of the Radical Party in this new formation was approved at the 111th Congress of the Radical Party before it entered into force. In addition to the Radical Party, this union should bring together the political formations of Hervé Morin's Nouveau Centre, Jean-Marie Bockel's Gauche Moderne and the Convention Démocrate by Hervé de Charette.

In early 2012, the radical party signed an agreement with Le Trèfle - Les Nouveaux Écologistes to benefit from public funds. With the radical deputies having been elected under the label of the UMP in 2007, this party is no longer considered as a party likely to benefit from public funding. Le Trèfle, which will receive 155,222.14 euros in 2012 for presenting candidates in at least 50 metropolitan constituencies in 2007, will also receive 802,338.73 euros thanks to its parliamentarians.

Albert Lapeyre, president of Trèfle, said that this sum will be donated entirely to the radical party. In addition, the two parties have agreed not to field competing candidates in the same constituencies and to regain their independence after the elections.

On March 10, 2012, at the 112th party congress, the question of the Radical Party's support for Nicolas Sarkozy was raised, and after tense discussions and putting the participants to a vote, 76% of the delegates they voted in favor of a resolution supporting “vigilantes” for the outgoing president against 24%.

In April 2012, the Union des Radicaux, Centristes, Indépendants et Démocrates (URCID) was created, an association chaired by Laurent Hénart that makes it possible to obtain public funding for candidates present in the 2012 general elections.

For the legislative elections of June 2012, 89 candidates are officially inverted (78 will come out under the colors of the party, 8 under the labels of the UMP and 3 under various labels of the right or center). The radical party obtains 12 deputies, several of which will eventually join the UMP).

Part of the UDI

Following the 2012 presidential elections, Jean-Louis Borloo revived the idea of a confederation of centrist parties and created, mainly around the radical party and the New Center, the Union des Démocrates et Indépendants. This new party of the center places its action in responsible opposition to the majority of the left. The UDI is open to welcome any new formation that recognizes itself in this political position. In addition to the Radical Party, it brings together the Nouveau Centre, the Alliance Centriste, the Gauche Moderne, the Force Européenne Démocrate and Territoires en Mouvement.

The Gauche Moderne would later become a movement associated with the Radical Party. In 2014, Yves Jégo, vice-president of the radical party, will also relaunch the Fédération des Clubs Perspectives et Réalités.

During the 2014 French senatorial elections, the six outgoing senators were re-elected, as well as Jean-Marc Gabouty and Pierre Médevielle, bringing the total of the Radicals to 10 senators (with Jean-Marie Bockel).

2017-2021: launch of the Radical Movement and suspension of activities

Merge Steps

In June 2017, a merger with the Parti Radical de Gauche (PRG) was planned. The reunification date was fixed for December 9, 2017, during an extraordinary congress.

On September 15 and 16, 2017, the two parties met for joint summer universities in Montpellier. For the occasion, three names were registered for the newly reunited party: Les Progressistes, Force Sociale et Liberale and La République Radicale.

The reunification of the two parties is put to a vote during congresses organized by each of the two parties on December 9 and 10, 2017, before a two-year transition.

Meeting in a founding congress on December 9, 2017, the two parties voted to merge into a new formation: the Mouvement Radical. The reunited party was co-chaired, for a two-year transition period, by Laurent Hénart and Sylvia Pinel.

Opponents and critics of reunification

Prior to the congress on December 9, radical deputy Yves Jégo announced that he was leaving the PR to remain a member of the UDI. At the end of the congress, other elected officials did the same: Michel Zumkeller (deputy), Sophie Joissains (senator and deputy vice-president) and Daniel Leca (regional councilor, vice-president of the UDI-UC group in the Hauts-de-France Regional Council, deputy secretary general). Along with other local elected officials and federation leaders, he launched an appeal and political structure Génération 1901 to bring together former members of the radical party within the UDI.

On the PRG side, Virginie Rozière MEP and former MEP Stéphane Saint-André co-signed a forum opposing the merger on December 7, 2017. On December 10, activists from the Drôme PRG also published an open letter to oppose it. On December 14, Virginie Rozière and Stéphane Saint-André announced the creation of a new political movement, entitled Les Radicaux de Gauche, of which they were co-chairs. In response, Sylvia Pinel decided to remove them from her role within the PRG and announced her intention to file a complaint against the use of the PRG trademark.

2021: relaunch of the Radical Party

On September 2, 2021, Laurent Hénart announced the end of the Mouvement Radical. Therefore, the brand Parti Radical is used until the effective dissolution of the MR voted on December 9, 2021.

Presidents of the Radical Party

• Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber 1972-1975
• Gabriel Péronnet 1975-1977
• Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber 1977-1979
• Didier Bariani 1979-1983
• André Rossinot 1983-1988
• Yves Galland 1988-1993
• André Rossinot 1993-1999
• François Loos 1999-2003
• André Rossinot 2003-2005
• Jean-Louis Borloo and André Rossinot Co-Chairs 2005 to date.

Election results

Elections	# Of vows	% of seats	# seats	+/-	Government
1902	1.445.415	17.12%	121/589	61a	Government
1906	2.514.508	28.53%	132/585	11	Government
1910	2.693.471	32.08%	261/590	129	Government
1914	2.930.018	34.75%	192/602	69	Government
1919	1.420.381	17.8%	86/613	106	Government
1924b	1.612.581	17.8%	139/552	53	Government
1928	1.682.543	17.7%	125/602	14	Government
1932c	1.836.991	19.18%	160/607	35	Government
1936d	1.422.611	14.50%	115/610	45	Government
1945	2.018.665	10.54%	71/586	44	Government
June 1946	In the RGR		32/586	39	Government
November 1946	In the RGR		42/620	10	Government
1951	In the RGR		67/625	25	Government
1956	2.389.163	10.99%	77/594	10	Government
1958	1.700.070	8.30%	57/546	20	Government
1962	1.429.649	7.79 per cent	44/482	13	Opposition
1967	In the FGDS		54/486	10	Opposition
1968	In the FGDS		26/486	28	Opposition
1973	In the Reform Movement		4/488	22	Opposition
1978	In UDF		9/488	5	Government
1981	In UDF		2/491	7	Opposition
1986	In UDF		7/577	5	Government
1988	In UDF		3/575	4	Opposition
1993	In UDF		14/577	11	Government
1997	In UDF		3/575	11	Opposition
2002	In coalition with UMP		9/577	6	Government
2007	In coalition with UMP		16/577	7	Government
2012	321.054	1.24%	6/577	10	Opposition
2017	In coalition with UDI		3/577	3	Government
2022	In Together		7/577	4	Government

^a Regarding the outcome of the Independent Radicals in 1898 ^b In the Cartel des Gauches coalition. ^c In the Left Coalition. ^d In the Popular Front.