Union for French Democracy

The Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF or "Union for French Democracy") is a French center-right political party. It was founded in 1998 as an union between several smaller parties (Parti radical, Parti républicain - later renamed Démocratie Libérale - and Centre des démocrates sociaux), but now is a single entity.

It may be compared to the Christian-Democratic Union of Germany in terms of policies.

Its current leader, as of 2003, is François Bayrou, and UDF is a junior partner in Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's cabinet. A prominent former leader is Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

UDF's most marked political trait is that it is in favor of European federalism, up to turning the European Union into United States of Europe.

The economic policies proposed by UDF's leaders used to range from left-wing-leaning, in favor of social justice, to strongly laissez-faire economics. Such divergences led the laissez-faire advocates of Démocratie Libérale to split out of UDF on May 16, 1998.

Similarly, the social policies ranged from the conservatism of the likes of Christine Boutin, famously opposed to civil unions for homosexuals to more progressive policies.

Many leaders of UDF left it to join the Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle, supporting Jacques Chirac, after it was founded in 2002, leaving François Bayrou somewhat isolated. While a partner in the Raffarin cabinet, UDF sometimes criticizes the policies of the French government, yet does not wish to quit the cabinet and enter the opposition, majoritarily left-wing.

An ironic characterization of UDF's membership is that it was the union of everybody on the right that was neither far-right nor a Chiracist.