Origins in the UMP The UMP's (
Union for a Popular Movement) change of party name and of party structure was one of the promises made by Nicolas Sarkozy during his campaign for the UMP presidency in 2014. After his election in November 2014, Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France from 2007 to 2012, put forward the request to the party's general committee to change its name to Les Républicains ("The Republicans") and alter the statutes of the party. The proposed statutes provided for, among other provisions, the election of the presidents of the departmental federations by direct democracy and consulting members on election nominations. Sarkozy wanted to change the name of the party to showcase the reunification of the disparate political views, from the social Gaullism of Henri Guaino to the right line of Patrick Buisson, into "one family". As declared in an interview for the
Journal du Dimanche, Sarkozy also wished to change the name in order to be ahead of his adversaries
Alain Juppé and François Fillon (also belonging to the
UMP) for the
2017 presidential election. The proposal to change the name was not received well by all members of the party. In an interview for BFMTV, Alain Juppé mocked the ex-French President for wanting to change the name of the UMP. Additionally, Gilles Boyer, supporter of François Fillon, showed his reluctance regarding the change of name by tweeting, "We are republicans. We are not THE republicans." Critics of the name change claimed it was unfair for Sarkozy to name the party "Republicans", because every French person is a republican if they support the values and ideals of the French Republic that emanated from the
French Revolution; as such, the term is above party politics. Left-wing associations and parties and 140 individuals, including five having "Républicain" as their last name, sued the UMP.
Founding congress The change to the name "The Republicans" was confirmed at the party's founding congress at the Paris Event Centre in
Paris on 30 May 2015, attended by 10,000 activists.
Angela Merkel, chairwoman of the
Christian Democratic Union of Germany, sent a congratulatory message to the congress. The Republicans thus became the legal successor of the UMP and the leading centre-right party in France. The organisation has been declared in the
préfecture de Saône-et-Loire on 9 April 2015. According to the statement of this declaration, its aim is to "promote ideas of the right and centre, open to every people who wish to be member and debate in the spirit of a political party with republican ideas in France or outside France". This party foundation was published in the on 25 April 2015.
2016 to 2018 On 3 July 2016,
Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would resign as leader that year in order to compete to be the centre-right candidate in the
2017 presidential election. In order to decide which candidate will represent The Republicans for the 2017 presidential election, a party's primary was organised in November 2016. The activists of the movement could choose between seven candidates: François Fillion, Alain Juppé, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-François Copé, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Bruno Le Maire and Jean-Frédéric Poisson. François Fillon, with 44,1% of the votes, and Alain Juppé, with 28,6%, were the two candidates qualified for the second round of the election.
François Fillon suffered a historic defeat in the first round of the presidential election, as he was the first centre-right candidate in the history of the Fifth Republic who failed to continue to the second round. This led to the victory of Emmanuel Macron, leader of his newly created party
La République En Marche!. François Fillon finished third in the first round of the presidential election with 20,01% of the vote, behind Emmanuel Macron (24,01%) and Marine le Pen (21,30%). This defeat is mainly due to the
Penelopegate scandal, as François Fillon was considered the favourite candidate by the polls before these revelations. The election victory of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 altered the French political landscape. After
Emmanuel Macron was elected as president, he appointed three centre-right politicians in his government from The Republicans, namely
Édouard Philippe as
Prime Minister,
Bruno Le Maire as
French Minister of the Economy and Finance, and
Gérald Darmanin as
Minister of Public Action and Accounts. A month after the presidential election, the legislative elections took place in France. In the second round of the
legislative elections in June, The Republicans won 112 seats in parliament, which is 82 less than the number of seats won by the
UMP in 2012. This result was the worst performance of a major centre-right political party in French history. On 11 July, the political bureau of The Republicans agreed to hold a
leadership election for president of the party on 10 and 17 December;
Laurent Wauquiez was elected in a single round on 10 December, winning 74.64% of the votes.
Laurent Wauquiez's election for the head of the Party continued to divide The Republicans as 26 elected officials left the party between his election on 10 December and 21 February 2018.
Since 2019 On 2 June 2019, a week after overseeing the worst result for the centre-right in its history in the
European elections with 8.48% of the vote, Wauquiez announced his resignation as president of The Republicans. On 13 October 2019,
Christian Jacob, former Minister of the
French Civil Service, was
elected as President of the party, taking from interim President
Jean Leonetti. In the
2020 French Senate election, the Republicans held their majority. In
2021 French regional elections, the party managed to retain all regional presidencies. In December 2021,
Valérie Pécresse won the
Republican congress, winning the centre-right to be the Republican candidate in the
2022 French presidential election. She earned 4.8% of the 1st round vote, which was under the 5% reimbursement threshold. Consequently, the party's funding was left in a critical condition and Pécresse launched an appeal, having been in €5 million in party debt. In the
2022 French legislative election, the Republicans lost 56 seats and fell from 2nd to 4th place in terms of seats. In the
2022 leadership election,
Éric Ciotti was elected with 53.7% of the votes against his main opponent,
Bruno Retailleau, who received 46.3% to become the next leader of the party. Ciotti has largely been described as
right-wing and of belonging in the populist faction of the party.
2024 leadership crisis In the aftermath of the
2024 European Parliament election and the subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron, Éric Ciotti declared his party would unite with
National Rally for the upcoming
2024 snap election. This stance provoked a major schism within the party, with French senators
Sophie Primas and
Jean-François Husson announcing on 11 June that they would leave the party. Ciotti was voted out as president on 12 June, though he disputed the decision. He was also expelled from the party on 14 June. A Paris court reviewed the case on 14 June and ruled in Ciotti's favor, reinstating him as party leader and a member of the party. Ciotti's decision to ally with the RN was endorsed by the leader of the
Les Jeunes Républicains Guilhem Carayon and by
MEP Céline Imart, a member of the ''
Fédération nationale des syndicats d'exploitants agricoles'' (FNSEA). Ciotti resigned from the party on 22 September, instead leading the
Union of the Right for the Republic. Although LR had previously promised not to participate in a government coalition after the
2024 legislative election, they ultimately joined the
Barnier government, led by an LR member. After Michel Barnier's ousting, LR joined the
Bayrou government. In both governments,
Ministry of Interior was occupied by former
Senate Republicans president
Bruno Retailleau. ==Ideology==