Founded 1967 (1967) Succeeded by Rally for the Republic | Dissolved 1976 (1976) | |
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Leader Charles de Gaulle
Georges Pompidou
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chirac Preceded by Union for the New Republic Headquarters 123 rue de Lille, Paris 7th | ||
The Union for the Defence of the Republic (1968, French: Union pour la défense de la République) or Union of Democrats for the Republic (1968–1976, French: Union des Démocrates pour la République), commonly abbreviated UDR, was a Gaullist political party of France that existed from 1968 to 1976.
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The UDR was the successor to Charles de Gaulle's earlier party, the Rally of the French People, and was organised in 1958, along with the founding of the Fifth Republic as the Union for the New Republic (UNR), and in 1962 merged with the Democratic Union of Labour, a left-Gaullist group. In 1967 it was joined by some Christian Democrats to form the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic, later dropping the 'Fifth'. After the May 1968 crisis, it formed a right-wing coalition named Union for the Defense of the Republic (UDR); it was subsequently renamed Union of Democrats for the Republic, retaining the abbreviation UDR, in October 1968.
Under de Gaulle's successor Georges Pompidou it promoted the Gaullist movement. It dissolved in 1976, and its successor was the Rally for the Republic (RPR) founded by Jacques Chirac.
Secretaries-general
UDR in the Senate
The UDR also had a parliamentary group in the French Senate. In 1977, the UDR Group was merged into the Rally for the Republic Group.