Editing Union for French Democracy (section)

==Ideology, positions, platform==
The UDF was a [[Centre-right politics|centre-right]] party,<ref name="Winter2008">{{cite book|author=Bronwyn Winter|title=Hijab & the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate|url=https://archive.org/details/hijabrepublicunc0000wint|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3174-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/hijabrepublicunc0000wint/page/74 74]}}</ref><ref name="DavidVarouxakis2014">{{cite book|author1=Howarth David|author2=Georgios Varouxakis|author3=David Howarth|title=Contemporary France: An Introduction to French Politics and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDYiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-4441-1887-2|page=71}}</ref><ref name="Shields2007">{{cite book|author=James Shields|title=The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eGJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA141|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-86111-8|page=141}}</ref> although it considered itself [[Centrism|centrist]].<ref name="Safran2015">{{cite book|author=William Safran|title=The French Polity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mdqoCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-34337-0|page=92}}</ref> Broadly, the UDF was a [[big tent]],<ref name="Tagesspiegel">{{cite web|last=Meier|first=Albrecht|title= Rechtsextremismus in Europa: Frankreichs Dammbruch à la Thüringen liegt zwei Jahrzehnte zurück|website=[[Tagesspiegel]]|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/frankreichs-dammbruch-a-la-thuringen-liegt-zwei-jahrzehnte-zuruck-4142134.html|date=6 February 2020|access-date=1 April 2023}}</ref> bringing together [[Christian democracy|Christian democrats]], [[Liberalism|liberals]], [[Classical radicalism|radicals]], [[Social democracy|social democrats]] and non-[[Gaullism|Gaullist]] conservatives.<ref name="Sauger2003">{{cite book|author=Nicolas Sauger|chapter=The UDF in the 1990s: the break-up of a political confederation|editor=Jocelyn Evans|title=The French Party System|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a_ojgq8HABUC&pg=PA107|year=2003|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-6120-2|pages=107–}}</ref><ref name="Bell2002">{{cite book|author=David S. Bell|title=French Politics Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2lIt4ssdQMC&pg=PA79|year=2002|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-5876-9|page=79}}</ref> The main ideological trends in the party were [[Christian democracy]],<ref>{{Cite book |first=Alexis|last=Massart|chapter=The Impossible Resurrection: Christian Democracy in France|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJ6x8zmRAaEC&pg=PA197|title=Christian Democratic Parties in Europe Since the End of the Cold War|editor-first=Steven|editor-last=Van Hecke|pages=197–|publisher=[[Leuven University Press]]|year=2004|isbn=9789058673770}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=Nick |last=Startin |title=Maastricht, Amsterdam and beyond: The troubled evolution of the French right |work=French Relations with the European Union |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |page=64}}</ref><ref name="MarksWilson1999">{{cite book|author1=Gary Marks|author2=Carole Wilson|chapter=National Parties and the Contestation of Europe|editor1=Thomas F. Banchoff|editor2=Mitchell P. Smith|title=Legitimacy and the European Union|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgvLEFPY8l4C&pg=PA126|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-18188-4|page=126}}</ref> [[liberalism]],<ref name="Tagesspiegel"/><ref name="Hubé2013">{{cite book|author=Nicolasw Hubé|chapter=France|editor=Nicolò Conti|title=Party Attitudes Towards the EU in the Member States: Parties for Europe, Parties Against Europe|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lpKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-93656-5|page=25}}</ref><ref name="Alexandre1997">{{cite book|author1=Agnes Alexandre|author2=Xavier Jardin|chapter=From the Europe of Nations to the European Nation? Attitudes of French Gaullist and Centrist Parliamentarians|editor1=David Denver|editor2=Justin Fisher|editor3=Steve Ludlam|editor4=Charles Pattie|title=British Elections and Parties Review|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeqNAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA198|year= 1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-25578-7|page=198}}</ref> [[conservative liberalism]]<ref name="Slomp2011">{{cite book|author=Hans Slomp|title=Europe, a Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1uzkNq8xfIC&pg=PA385|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39181-1|page=385}}</ref> and [[liberal conservatism]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Joachim Schild|author2=Henrik Uterwedde|title=Frankreich: Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7n1a3TD6Uv0C|year=2006|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=9783531150765|page=45}}</ref><ref name="Cole">{{cite book |author=Alistair Cole |chapter=Stress, strain and stability in the French party system |editor=Jocelyn Evans |title=The French Party System|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a_ojgq8HABUC&pg=PA12 |year=2003 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6120-2 |page=12}}</ref>

The UDF's most marked political trait was [[pro-Europeanism]] and support for [[European integration]], up to the point of turning the [[European Union]] into a federal [[European Federation|United States of Europe]].<ref name="Hubé2013"/> In that respect, UDF was the likely target of Chirac's [[Call of Cochin]] (1978), in which he denounced the pro-European policies of "the party of the foreigners".

Until 2002, the UDF spanned a somewhat wide ideological spectrum on the centre-right. A tongue-in-cheek characterisation of UDF's membership is that it was the union of everybody on the right that was neither [[far-right politics|far-right]] nor a [[Jacques Chirac]] supporter. However, the UDF suffered for its lack of cohesion, in contrast to Chirac's [[Rally for the Republic]]. Its economic policies ranged from favouring left-leaning [[social justice]] to favouring [[laissez-faire]] liberalism. Such divergences led the laissez-faire advocates, such as [[Alain Madelin]], to form [[Liberal Democracy (France)|Liberal Democracy]] in 1997 and split from the UDF in 1998. Similarly, social policies ranged from the [[social conservatism]] of the likes of [[Christine Boutin]], famously opposed to [[civil union]]s for [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[same-sex marriage]], [[abortion]] and [[euthanasia]], to more [[social progressivism|socially progressive]] policies. Boutin was eventually excluded from the UDF and in 2001 she formed the [[VIA, the Way of the People|Forum of Social Republicans]].

During the [[2007 French presidential election|2007 presidential electoral campaign]], [[François Bayrou]] presented himself as a centrist and a social-liberal<ref>[http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8780184 The third man], ''[[The Economist]]'', 1 March 2007.</ref> (he even opened the door to gay adoptions),<ref>Interview with Bayrou, ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', 16 March 2007.</ref> proclaiming that if elected, he would "govern beyond the left-right divide".<ref>[http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8853752 Jacques Chirac's poisoned legacy], ''[[The Economist]]'', 16 March 2007, p. 17.</ref> He won 18.6% of the vote, but this was not enough for him to reach the second round.