After World War II, France was governed by the
Three-parties alliance composed of the
Communists, the
Socialists and the Christian democratic
Popular Republican Movement (MRP). The Radical Party and the pre-war
right-wing groups were considered jointly responsible for the 1940 collapse of the
Third Republic. In the same time, the attempt to gather the non-Communist Resistance in a new party, the UDSR, failed. In 1946, they formed a coalition to resist to the Three-parties alliance in the legislative elections. They defined themselves as "
left-wing republicans" whilst they opposed left-wing policies. Indeed, until the end of the 19th century, the French left was defined as
republican and the right as pro-
monarchy. Then, when the republic was no longer questioned, the conservative republican groups, who had sat at the center-left of the assemblies, moved to the right-wing seats, but they continued to consider themselves as left-wingers: this is known as
sinistrisme. When the Communists were ejected from the government during the
May 1947 crisis, the RGR joined the government of the
Third force with the SFIO, the MRP, then the
National Center of Independents and Peasants. The RGR obtained 11.6% of the votes in 1946, 11,1% in 1951 and 3.9% of 1956 (most of the Radicals had decided to present themselves as members of the
Republican Front of
Pierre Mendès France.) In 1955, under the leaderships of
Pierre Mendès France and
François Mitterrand, the Radical Party and the UDSR advocated left-wing policies and left the RGR. Their internal opponents pursued the RGR, which became a small center-right party led by Prime Minister
Edgar Faure and composed of Radicals expelled from the party. It disappeared in 1958, many Radicals joining again the Radical Party while
Jean-Paul David created the
Parti libéral européen (European Liberal Party), which would eventually fuse in 1978 with the
Parti Radical Valoisien. == See also ==