Union for French Democracy

Union for French Democracy Union pour la démocratie française
Abbreviation	UDF
Leaders	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Raymond Barre François Bayrou
Founder	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Founded	1 February 1978; 46 years ago (1978-02-01) (alliance) 1998; 26 years ago (1998) (unified party)
Dissolved	30 November 2007; 16 years ago (2007-11-30) (defunct)[a]
Merger of	Democratic Force Independent Republican and Liberal Pole
Succeeded by	Union for a Popular Movement Democratic Movement
Headquarters	UDF 133 bis, rue de l'Université 75007 Paris
Ideology	Liberalism Christian democracy
Political position	Centre-right
European affiliation	European People's Party (1994–2004)[1] European Democratic Party[2] (2004–07)
International affiliation	None
European Parliament group	LDR (1979–94) EPP-ED (1994–2004) ALDE (2004–07)
Colours	Blue (official) (1978–2004)   Cyan (customary) (1978–2004)   Orange (2004–2007)
Website
www.udf.org (inactive)
Politics of France Political parties Elections

The Union for French Democracy (French: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre-right political party in France. The UDF was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the political right in France. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's 1976 book, Démocratie française.

The founding parties of the UDF were Giscard's Republican Party (PR), the Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), the Radical Party (Rad.), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Perspectives and Realities Clubs (CPR). The UDF was most frequently a junior partner in coalitions with the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its successor party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Prior to its dissolution, the UDF became a single entity, due to the defection of Republicans, Radicals and most Christian Democrats to the UMP and the merger of the other centrist components. The UDF effectively ceased to exist by the end of 2007, and its membership and assets were transferred to its successor party, the Democratic Movement (MoDem). The UDF's final leader was François Bayrou, who transferred his leadership to MoDem.

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