Mouvement republicain popular

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The Mouvement républicain populaire ( MRP ; German People's Republican Movement , often called "People's Republican") was a Christian Democratic party in France that existed from 1944 to 1967. It was founded immediately after World War II and was the determining political force in the early Fourth Republic (1946-1951). In addition to the German CDU / CSU and the Italian Democrazia Cristiana , the MRP was one of the three major Christian Democratic parties in Western Europe. In the 1950s, the party gradually lost its importance, and in 1967 it disbanded. Her leaders included Robert Schuman , Georges Bidault , François de Menthon and Pierre Pflimlin .

history

Georges Bidault

The MRP was founded after the liberation of France in the autumn of 1944 by Catholic and Christian Democratic politicians and resistance fighters . Many of them had belonged to the Parti Démocrate Populaire (PDP; e.g. Georges Bidault ), the Alsatian Union populaire républicaine (UPR) or the Lorraine Union républicaine lorraine (URL; e.g. Robert Schuman ) in the interwar period. Other members also came from the Christian trade union confederation CFTC or the Catholic youth association ACJF . In terms of content, the party represented a social policy reform program, was an advocate of Franco-German reconciliation and strived for a united Europe . MRP politicians played an important role in the first steps towards (Western) European integration ( Schuman Plan , Coal and Steel Union ).

In the elections for the Constituent Assembly in October 1945, the MRP was just behind the Communists ( PCF ) and formed the provisional government with them and the Socialists ( SFIO ). In the second constituent assembly, which was elected in June 1946, the MRP was the strongest force with 166 of the 586 seats. Then Georges Bidault led the interim government. The three-party coalition (tripartisme) with the communists (PCF) and socialists (SFIO) continued the MRP until 1947. After the communists left the government, a center coalition (Troisième Force) consisting of MRP, SFIO, the social-liberal Parti radical and UDSR followed , which lasted in changing cabinets until 1951. In these, Robert Schuman was Prime Minister from 1947 to 1948, and Georges Bidault from 1949 to 1950.

The election results of the MRP were already falling very quickly: In the parliamentary elections in 1951, its share of the vote halved compared to 1946. According to journalist Jacques Fauvet, the contradiction in the party's strategy was “to do left-wing politics with right-wing voters while they are in the middle Many supporters and politicians of the MRP defected to the Rassemblement du peuple français (RPF), the party of Charles de Gaulle . Nevertheless, the Christian Democratic Party played an important role in the following center-right governments. The MRP was ultimately deeply divided on the question of the Algeria problem .

The party agreed to de Gaulle's return to power and the establishment of the Fifth Republic. In this, however, their loss of importance continued. The MRP was a junior partner in de Gaulle's government until 1962, when it went into opposition. The party achieved a respectable success in the 1965 presidential election when its last chairman, Jean Lecanuet, received 15.6% of the vote. The following year, the remaining members founded the center-oriented Center démocrate under the leadership of Lecanuet , from which in 1976 the Center des démocrates sociaux (CDS) emerged. This joined the Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF) in 1978 .

National Assembly elections

  • 1945: 23.9% - 150 seats
  • 1946: 28.2% - 169 seats
  • 1946: 25.9% - 167 seats
  • 1951: 12.6% - 96 seats
  • 1956: 11.1% - 84 seats
  • 1958: 11.1% - 57 seats
  • 1962: 9.1% - 55 seats

Note on the election results: they are voting in the order of magnitude, but vary by up to 2-3% depending on the source.

President of the MRP

General Secretaries of the MRP

literature

  • Bruno Béthouart: Le Mouvement Républicain Populaire. L'entrée des catholiques dans la République française. In: Michael Gehler, Wolfram Kaiser, Helmut Wohnout: Christian Democracy in Europe in the 20th Century. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2001, pp. 313–331.
  • Gerhard Lehmbruch (Ed.): The Mouvement Républicain Populaire in the Fourth Republic. The process of political decision-making in a French party. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2016, ISBN 978-3-8487-2229-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. Reinhard Schreiner: The European policy of the CDU with regard to France and the Mouvement Republicain Populaire (MRP) 1945-1966. In: Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen , Volume 1 (1994), pp. 183–196, here p. 183.
  2. ^ Jacques Fauvet: La IV e République. Fayard, 1959. Original quote: Le MRP se proposait de faire une politique de gauche, avec des électeurs de droite, tout en siégeant au center.