The UDCA was founded in 1953 by
Pierre Poujade as a
tax protest organisation in the
Lot Department in
Occitania. It published a newspaper,
Fraternité française. It also had an anthem, written by
André Montagard in 1955. Poujade recruited up to 800,000 members. In the
1956 legislative election the party took 12.62% of the vote, winning 52 seats in the
National Assembly, primarily from rural areas. In the assembly, the party changed its name to (French Union and Fraternity). One of its deputies was a young
Jean-Marie Le Pen, elected for the
Seine Department's 3rd
electoral district. The party sat in opposition to
Guy Mollet's government. The movement promoted the repeal of taxes for small business owners. By 1958, it had become strongly opposed to
Charles de Gaulle's policy of
decolonisation in
French Algeria. It was also opposed to the proposed
European Defence Community. It supported a "new
Estates General" which would restructure the political system. It exhibited some
antisemitic tendencies; its leader said that "[Prime Minister
Pierre Mendès France, who was Jewish] is French only as the word added to his name". After
Charles de Gaulle re-entered the political fray in 1958, the movement largely faded from view, failing to hold its position in the
1958 legislative election. Deprived of its parliamentary representation, it dissolved in 1962 because of infighting. ==References==