Gaullist Party - Gaullist Party's Height (1958-1976)

Gaullist Party's Height (1958-1976)

Further information: Union of Democrats for the Republic

In order that he should not be faced with an hostile Assembly, dominated by the parties (as was the case in 1945-1946), De Gaulle let his followers organize a political party, the Union for the New Republic (Union pour la nouvelle république or UNR). After the November 1958 legislative election, it became the largest force in the political system. It was allied with center-left and center-right parties to support De Gaulle, who was elected President of France by a congress of local and national elects in December 1958. Michel Debré was nominated as Prime minister.

However, the change of Algerian policy divided the party. The chairman of the National Assembly Jacques Chaban-Delmas considered Algeria was a part of the presidential "reserved domain", as well as foreign and military affairs. Soustelle, leader of the pro-French Algeria faction in the party, left the cabinet in 1960, then was ejected from the UNR. He joined Georges Bidault at the head of the Organisation armée secrète which perpetrated terrorist attacks. After this crisis, the UNR appeared as the party of de Gaulle's unconditional supporters, hence its reputation of "boot party". Debré theorized its function of strap of the government. With De Gaulle refusing to be a party leader, Debré covertly took this position.

Meanwhile, the center-left parties returned to the opposition in 1959, followed in 1962 by the center-right parties, who criticized the eurosceptic declarations of De Gaulle and the "presidentialisation". Indeed, De Gaulle instituted presidential election by universal suffrage, defying all the political forces (except UNR). The French voters approved this by referendum. De Gaulle had intended to replace Debré with Georges Pompidou as Prime minister but this was denied by a vote of no-confidence. De Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly. Associated with the left-wing Gaullists of the Democratic Union of Labour (Union démocratique du travail or UDT), and allied with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Independent Republicans, the UNR won the 1962 legislative election and Pompidou was confirmed to lead the cabinet.

Naturally, the UNR/UDT supported De Gaulle's candidature at the 1965 presidential election. But he won only after a second ballot, which he considered as a disavowal. Relations became more difficult with the only allied party in the presidential majority, the Independent Republicans, while the opposition was reconstructed.

While the Democratic Center intensified its criticism, some Christian-Democrats, such Maurice Schumann, joined the Gaullist Party, renamed Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic (Union des démocrates pour la Cinquième République or UD-Ve). Prime Minister Pompidou led the party during the 1967 legislative campaign. He encouraged the emergence of a new generation of Gaullist politicians who were loyal to him. The incumbent parliamentary majority only just won.

One year later, Gaullist power was confronted with the social and student May 1968 crisis. Although the newly-renamed Union for the Defense of the Republic (Union pour la défense de la République or UDR) triumphed at the June 1968 legislative election, disagreements had appeared between De Gaulle and Pompidou. Pompidou reproached De Gaulle for leaving the country without informing him, during the crisis. For De Gaulle, his project of association between capital and labour could prevent this sort of social crisis, but Pompidou wished scrap it. Indeed, for De Gaulle's circle, Pompidou was more a classical conservative than a real Gaullist.

Pompidou left the leadership of the cabinet in order to prepare his future presidential campaign. In this, he declared his candidacy if De Gaulle were to resign. That was the case in 1969, after the failure of the referendum about Senate and regional reform, and he won the 1969 presidential election despite the reluctance of some of the "barons of Gaullism".

His Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas announced a reform programme for a "New Society". It raised sceptical reactions from the conservative wing of the UDR, then from Pompidou himself. They reproached him for giving too many concessions to the left-wing opposition. In President Pompidou's circle, he was accused of wanting to weaken the presidential functions in favour of himself. The party became the Union of Democrats for the Republic (Union des démocrates pour la République) while this crisis broke out. Pompidou refused Chaban-Delmas a vote of confidence in the National Assembly and, when he held it anyway, Pompidou forced him to resign and nominated Pierre Messmer. The UDR, allied with the Independent Republicans and Centre, Democracy and Progress, won the 1973 legislative election and succeeded in blocking the "Union of the Left" and its Common Programme.

When Pompidou died in office, on 2 April 1974, his two former Prime Ministers, Chaban-Delmas and Messmer, claimed the UDR candidacy for the presidential election. Finally, the latter withdrew, but some influential personalities in the party, notably in the circle of the late president, doubted of the capacity of Chaban-Delmas to defeat François Mitterrand, the representative of the "Union of the Left". Behind the young minister Jacques Chirac, a former adviser of Pompidou, they published the Call of the 43. They covertly supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Minister of Economy and the Independent Republicans's leader. Giscard eliminated Chaban-Delmas in the first round, then narrowly defeated Mitterrand in the second. He was the first non-Gaullist President of the Fifth Republic.

Chirac became Prime minister and became the leader of the UDR in December 1974, in spite of the negative opinions of many historical Gaullist personalities (Michel Debré, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, etc.). They accused him of having betrayed the party during the previous presidential campaign. Some months later, a conflict broke out between the executive leadership and Chirac left the cabinet in August 1976.