National Centre of Independents and Peasants
Encyclopedia
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 1949 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
.
The CNI and its predecessors were classical liberal and economically liberal parties opposed to the dirigisme
of the left, centre and Gaullist right.
coalition, and took a major role in government at the beginning of the 1950s. Antoine Pinay
, its most popular figure, was Prime Minister
in 1952, followed by Joseph Laniel
from 1953-1954. It elected René Coty
as President of France in 1953. It declined after the Dien Bien Phu
military disaster in Indochina
in 1954.
In 1958, it supported Charles de Gaulle
's comeback and approved the constitution of the Fifth Republic
. Between 1958 and 1962 the CNIP was the second largest political party and Antoine Pinay
was Minister of the Economy until 1960. However, the party criticized the euroscepticism of De Gaulle and the "presidentialisation" of the regime. In 1962, it returned in opposition but the CNIP ministers, such Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
, refused to leave the cabinet. They founded the Independent Republicans
, along with 24 deputies. The RI remained in the presidential majority.
The party was defeated in the 1962 legislative election
after 109 of its deputies voted against Georges Pompidou
's government in a confidence vote on October 5, 1962. It participated, in vain, in the referendum campaign against the election of the President universal suffrage.
In 1965, it merged with the Christian-democratic Popular Republican Movement
to form the Democratic Centre
. It became independent again after 1968, but it is a marginal conservative group (sometimes with far right tendencies, having gained members from the Parti des forces nouvelles
), and was an associate party of the Union for a Popular Movement
until June 2008. It has two seats in the French National Assembly
, both in the UMP group. François Lebel, mayor of the 8th arrondissement of Paris joined the party in April 2008.
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%).
Liberal conservatism
Liberal conservatism also known as progressive conservatism is a variant of political conservatism which incorporates liberal elements. As "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had different meanings over time and across countries, the term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite different...
and conservative-liberal
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, founded in 1949 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
Democratic Republican Alliance
The Democratic Republican Alliance was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta, such as Raymond Poincaré who would be president of the Council in the 1920s...
) with the Peasant Party and the Republican Party of Liberty
Republican Party of Liberty
The Republican Party of Liberty was a right-of-center French political party created at the Liberation and absorbed by the National Centre of Independents and Peasants in 1951...
.
The CNI and its predecessors were classical liberal and economically liberal parties opposed to the dirigisme
Dirigisme
Dirigisme is an economy in which the government exerts strong directive influence. While the term has occasionally been applied to centrally planned economies, where the state effectively controls both production and allocation of resources , it originally had neither of these meanings when...
of the left, centre and Gaullist right.
History
It participated in the Third ForceThird Force (France)
The Third Force was a French coalition during the Fourth Republic which gathered the French Section of the Workers' International party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance centre-right party, the Radicals, the Christian democrat Popular Republican Movement and other centrist...
coalition, and took a major role in government at the beginning of the 1950s. Antoine Pinay
Antoine Pinay
Antoine Pinay |Rhône]], France – 13 December 1994) was a French conservative politician. He served as Prime Minister of France in 1952.-Life:As a young man, Pinay fought in World War I and injured his arm so that it was paralyzed for the rest of his life....
, its most popular figure, was Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
in 1952, followed by Joseph Laniel
Joseph Laniel
Joseph Laniel was a French conservative politician of the Fourth Republic, who served as Prime Minister for a year from 1953 to 1954. During the middle of his tenure as Prime Minister Laniel was an unsuccessful candidate for the French Presidency, a post won by René Coty...
from 1953-1954. It elected René Coty
René Coty
René Jules Gustave Coty was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president under the French Fourth Republic.-Early life and politics:...
as President of France in 1953. It declined after the Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
military disaster in Indochina
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
in 1954.
In 1958, it supported Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's comeback and approved the constitution of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
. Between 1958 and 1962 the CNIP was the second largest political party and Antoine Pinay
Antoine Pinay
Antoine Pinay |Rhône]], France – 13 December 1994) was a French conservative politician. He served as Prime Minister of France in 1952.-Life:As a young man, Pinay fought in World War I and injured his arm so that it was paralyzed for the rest of his life....
was Minister of the Economy until 1960. However, the party criticized the euroscepticism of De Gaulle and the "presidentialisation" of the regime. In 1962, it returned in opposition but the CNIP ministers, such Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
, refused to leave the cabinet. They founded the Independent Republicans
Independent Republicans
The Independent Republicans were a French liberal-conservative political group founded in 1962, which became a political party in 1966 . The leader was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing....
, along with 24 deputies. The RI remained in the presidential majority.
The party was defeated in the 1962 legislative election
French legislative election, 1962
- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
after 109 of its deputies voted against Georges Pompidou
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
's government in a confidence vote on October 5, 1962. It participated, in vain, in the referendum campaign against the election of the President universal suffrage.
In 1965, it merged with the Christian-democratic Popular Republican Movement
Popular Republican Movement
The Popular Republican Movement was a French Christian democratic party of the Fourth Republic...
to form the Democratic Centre
Democratic Centre (France)
Democratic Centre was a French Christian-Democratic and centrist party. It existed from 1966 to 1976 when it merged with another party into the Centre of Social Democrats.- History :...
. It became independent again after 1968, but it is a marginal conservative group (sometimes with far right tendencies, having gained members from the Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles or Party of New Forces was a French far right political party formed in November 1974 from the Comité faire front, a group of anti-Jean-Marie Le Pen dissidents who had split from the National Front .-Development:...
), and was an associate party of the Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
until June 2008. It has two seats in the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
, both in the UMP group. François Lebel, mayor of the 8th arrondissement of Paris joined the party in April 2008.
In the 2009 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2009 (France)
European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 seats to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats...
, 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
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
(0.42%).
Legislative
| Election year | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 French legislative election, 1951 Legislative elections were held in France on 17 June 1951 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fourth Republic.After the Second World War, the three parties which took a major part in the French Resistance to the German occupation dominated the political scene and government: the French... |
2,563,782 | 13.64% | 96 |
| 1956 | 3,259,782 | 14.99% | 95 |
| 1958 French legislative election, 1958 - National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
2,815,176 | 13.70% | 132 |
| 1962 French legislative election, 1962 - National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
1,404,177 | 7.66% | 28 |
| 1978 French legislative election, 1978 The French legislative elections took place on 12 March and 19 March 1978 to elect the 6th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 2 April 1974 President Georges Pompidou died. The non-Gaullist center-right leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to succeed him... |
classified as RPR or UDF | 8 | |
| 1981 French legislative election, 1981 French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage... |
classified as RPR or UDF | 5 | |
| 1986 French legislative election, 1986 The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François... |
participated in FN and RPR-UDF lists | 5 | |
| 1988 French legislative election, 1988 French legislative elections took place on 5 June and 12 June 1988 to elect the 9th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, one month after the re-election of François Mitterrand as President of France.... |
classified as RPR | 5 | |
| 1993 French legislative election, 1993 French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the 10th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. Without the support of the Communists, Prime minister... |
122,194 | 0.5% | 2 |
| 1997 French legislative election, 1997 French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline.... |
132,814 | 0.52% | 0 |
| 2002 French legislative election, 2002 -12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
14,403 | 0.06% | 2 |
| 2007 French legislative election, 2007 The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions... |
classified as UMP | 2 | |
European Parliament
| Election year | Number of votes | % of overall vote | # of seats won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 European Parliament election, 1984 (France) In 1984 the second direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party, and the Front National... |
ran on UDF-RPR list | 2 | |
| 1989 European Parliament election, 1989 (France) On 15 June 1989 the third direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, an alliance of the Socialist Party and the PRG, the French Communist... |
ran on UDF-RPR list | 2 | |
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (France) On 12 June 1994 the fourth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre-right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party, the Left Radical Party, the French Communist... |
ran on UDF-RPR list | 0 | |
| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (France) European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 seats to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats... |
8,656 | 0.05% | 0 |
Presidents
- 1973 - 1975 : François Schleiter
- 1975 - 1979 : Bertrand Motte
- 1979 - 1980 : collegial leadership (Jacques Fouchier, Maurice Ligot, Raymond Bourgine)
- 1980 - 1987 : Philippe MalaudPhilippe MalaudPhilippe Malaud was a French diplomat and politician. He graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 1956. From 1968 until 1978, he was a member of the Independent Republicans....
- 1987 - 1989 : Jacques Féron
- 1989 - 1992 : Yvon Briant
- 1992 - 1996 : Jean-Antoine Giansily
- 1996 - 1998 : Olivier d'Ormesson
- 1998 - 1999 : Jean Perrin
- 1999 - 2000 : Gérard Bourgoin
- 2000 - 2009 : Annick du Roscoät
- since 2009 : Gilles BourdouleixGilles BourdouleixGilles Bourdouleix is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Maine-et-Loire department, and is a member of the National Centre of Independents and Peasants . He is the mayor of Cholet, Maine-et-Loire.-References:...
Elected officials
- Deputies: Gilles BourdouleixGilles BourdouleixGilles Bourdouleix is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Maine-et-Loire department, and is a member of the National Centre of Independents and Peasants . He is the mayor of Cholet, Maine-et-Loire.-References:...
(Maine-et-LoireMaine-et-LoireMaine-et-Loire is a department in west-central France, in the Pays de la Loire region.- History :Maine-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally it was called Mayenne-et-Loire, but its name was changed to Maine-et-Loire in 1791....
), Christian VannesteChristian VannesteChristian Vanneste , is a French politician.-Career:A member of the French Parliament, he was elected in the 10th constituency of Nord...
(Nord) - Senators: Philippe DominatiPhilippe DominatiPhilippe Dominati is a French politician and a member of the Senate of France. He represents Paris and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement Party.-References:*...
(ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
)