National Centre of Independents and Peasants

National Centre of Independents and Peasants
Centre national des indépendants et paysans
President Gilles Bourdouleix
Founder René Coty
Founded January 6, 1949 (1949-01-06) (as CNI)
Merger of Democratic Alliance, Republican Party of Liberty
Headquarters 6, rue Quentin Bauchart 75008 Paris
Youth wing Youngs Independents and Peasants
Ideology Civic nationalism
Ordoliberalism
Traditionalism
Agrarianism
Political position Right-wing
International affiliation None
Colours              Blue, white, red (French Tricolour)
National Assembly
1 / 577
Senate
0 / 348
European Parliament
0 / 74
Regional Councils
0 / 1,880
Website
www.cni.asso.fr

The National Centre of Independents and Peasants (Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans, CNI) is a liberal-conservative and conservative-liberal political party in France, founded in 1951 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents (the heir of the French Republican conservative-liberal tradition, many party members came from the Democratic Republican Alliance) with the Peasant Party and the Republican Party of Liberty.

It played a major role during the Fourth Republic (before 1958), since the Fifth Republic, its importance has decreased significantly. The party has mostly run as a minor ally of bigger centre-right parties. The CNI and its predecessors have been classical liberal and economically liberal parties opposed to the dirigisme of the left, centre and Gaullist right.

History

Fourth Republic

The CNI was founded in January 1949 with the aim of uniting centre-right and right-wing parliamentarians, dispersed between a plethora of parties such as the Republican Party of Liberty and other modérés (moderates). It adopted its current name in 1951 after it merged with Paul Antier's small Peasant Party.

As the leading right-wing during the Fourth Republic, it won around 14% of the vote in 1951 and 1956 and participated in Third Force government coalitions, taking a major role in governments at the beginning of the 1950s. Antoine Pinay, its most popular figure, was Prime Minister in 1952, followed by Joseph Laniel from 1953-1954. René Coty, a CNIP parliamentarian, was elected President of France in 1953. The party's power declined after the Dien Bien Phu military disaster in Indochina in 1954, and it remained in opposition for most of the last two years of the Fourth Republic after the 1956 elections.

The CNIP was an anti-communist party, strongly supported and financed by employers, colonial and agricultural lobbies.[1] While the CNIP was more economically liberal than the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), like the MRP it supported European integration and NATO. It was, however, a militant defender of French Algeria throughout the Algerian War.

Fifth Republic

In 1958, it supported Charles de Gaulle's comeback and approved the constitution of the Fifth Republic. Having won over 130 seats in the 1958 election, it was a member of the Gaullist governing coalition until 1962. Antoine Pinay, the Minister of the Economy until 1960, spearheaded a successful monetary reform in 1959 (the introduction of the nouveau franc). However, the party quickly clashed with the Gaullists. It opposed Charles de Gaulle's policy of self-determination in Algeria, disliked his interventionist economic policies, criticized the euroscepticism of De Gaulle and opposed the growing "presidentialisation" of the regime. On October 5, 1962, 107 CNIP deputies voted no-confidence in Georges Pompidou's government,[2] opposing de Gaulle's constitutional reform on the election of the President by universal suffrage. However, the CNIP cabinet ministers, led by future president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, continued to support de Gaulle. With the support of 24 deputies, they founded their own party, the Independent Republicans (RI).

Severely weakened by the split and its opposition to the October 1962 referendum, it suffered a major defeat in the 1962, left with only a handful of seats. It allied itself with the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) to form the Democratic Centre, later known as Progress and Modern Democracy, in which the CNIP was only a small component.

The party has never regained its former strength and became a marginal conservative group. In the 1980s, it attempted to serve as a 'bridge' between the parliamentary right (RPR and UDF) and the far-right (FN). In the 1986 election, CNIP members appeared on RPR-UDF lists but it won three seats through local alliances with the FN in some departments. In 1997, it formed an ephemeral alliance with Philippe de Villiers' Movement for France.

Recent history

The CNIP became an associate party of the Union for a Popular Movement in 2002, before it decided to dissociate itself from the party in June 2008. Following the 2007 legislative election it had two seats in the French National Assembly. François Lebel, mayor of the 8th arrondissement of Paris joined the party in April 2008.

Since 2008, it hesitated between pursuing an alliance with President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP or allying itself with the centrist allies of the presidential majority, most notably Jean-Louis Borloo's Radical Party. It joined the Liaison Committee for the Presidential Majority, a short-lived structuring committee composed of the UMP and its close allies. Gilles Bourdouleix, who took the reins of the party in 2009, announced in 2011 that his party was negotiating an alliance with Borloo's centrist Alliance républicaine, écologiste et sociale.[3] Although these negotiations were unsuccessful, they provoked a major feud with the party's former leader, Annick du Roscoät,[4] who wanted the party to keep its conservative orientation while Bourdouleix has sought to reposition the CNIP towards the centre-right.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party ran autonomous lists in three constituencies. However, the party was only able to print ballots in Guyane (2.65%) and Île-de-France (0.42%). In the 2010 regional elections, the CNIP supported some lists led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan's Arise the Republic while it backed the UMP or dissident right-wing lists in other regions.

On September 19, 2012, Bourdouleix - the party's only remaining deputy - announced that the CNIP was joining Borloo's centre-right Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI).[5] He had already joined the UDI group in the National Assembly in June 2012. But on the 10th of September, the CNIP was expelled from the UDI after Gilles Bourdouleix had declared the "Maybe Hitler hadn't killed enough romas".[6]

Electoral results

Presidential election

President of France
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 Candidate president Result
1965 13,083,699 (#1) 55.20
Charles de Gaulle
 Won
1969 7,943,118 (#2) 41.79
Alain Poher
 Lost
1974 13,396,203 (#1) 50.81
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
 Won
1981 14,642,306 (#2) 48.24
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
 Lost
1988 5,031,849 (#3) 16.55
Raymond Barre
 Lost
1995 1,443,186 (#7) 4.74
Philippe de Villiers
 Lost
2002 25,537,956 (#1) 82.21
Jacques Chirac
 Won
2007 18,983,138 (#1) 53.06
Nicolas Sarkozy
 Won
2012 16,860,685 (#2) 48.36
Nicolas Sarkozy
 Lost

French Parliament

National Assembly
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1951 2,563,782 (#4) 13.64
96 / 625
–
Roger Duchet
1956 3,259,782 (#2) 14.99
95 / 595
Decrease 1
Roger Duchet
1958 4,092,600 (#2) 19.9
132 / 546
Increase 37
Roger Duchet
1962 1,404,177 (#6) 7.66
28 / 491
Decrease 104
Camille Laurens
1967 Ran together with UD-Ve
0 / 491
Decrease 28
Camille Laurens
1968 Ran together with UDR
0 / 491
-
Camille Laurens
1973 Ran together with UDR
0 / 491
-
Camille Laurens
1978 Ran together with RPR
8 / 491
[7]
Increase 8
Bertrand Motte
1981 Ran together with RPR
5 / 491
[8]
Decrease 3
Philippe Malaud
1986 Ran together with RPR
5 / 573
[9]
-
Philippe Malaud
1988 Ran together with RPR
5 / 577
-
Jacques Féron
1993 122,194 (#13)[10] 0.5
2 / 577
Decrease 3
Jean-Antoine Giansily
1997 132,814 (#13)[11] 0.52
0 / 577
Decrease 2
Olivier d'Ormesson
2002 14,403 (#19)[12] 0.06
2 / 577
Increase 2
Annick du Roscoät
2007 Ran together with UMP
2 / 577
-
Annick du Roscoät
2012 Ran together with UMP
1 / 577
Decrease 1
Gilles Bourdouleix

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1979* 5,588,851 (#1) 27.61
0 / 81
–
Bertrand Motte
1984** 8,683,596 (#1) 43.03
2 / 81
Increase 2
Philippe Malaud
1989** 5,242,038 (#1) 28.88
2 / 81
-
Jacques Féron
1994** 4,985,574 (#1) 25.58
0 / 87
Decrease 2
Jean-Antoine Giansily
2009 8,656 (#12) 0.05
0 / 72
-
Annick du Roscoät
Notes

Leaders

Until 1973, the party was led by a secretary-general

Since 1973, the party has been led by a president

Elected officials

References

  1. ↑ Jean-Pierre Rioux, La France de la Quatrième République, tome 2, "L'expansion et l'impuissance", Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine n°16, Seuil, Paris, 1983, p.90
  2. ↑ Proceedings of the National Assembly, 4 October 1962, second sitting; vote tally on p. 3268. p. 38 in the PDF file
  3. ↑ Le CNIP de Gilles Bourdouleix se rapproche de Jean-Louis Borloo, Ouest-France July 1, 2011
  4. ↑ Annick du Roscoät : « Avec Gilles Bourdouleix, le CNIP est mort ! ».
  5. ↑ Le CNI rejoint l'UDI de Borloo, Le Figaro, September 19, 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.europe1.fr/politique/le-cnip-vire-de-l-udi-1636337
  7. ↑ 4 members in the UDF group, 2 in the RPR group, 2 non-affiliated
  8. ↑ 3 members in the UDF group, 2 in the RPR group
  9. ↑ 3 members in the FN group, 2 in the RPR group
  10. ↑ "1993". France-politique.fr.
  11. ↑ "1997". France-politique.fr.
  12. ↑ "2002". France-politique.fr.
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