The increased presidentialism inherent in the structures of the Fifth Republic has led to increasing polarization of French politics, and no party better exemplifies this trend than the Union pour la dTmocratie frantaise (UDF). Rather than a party in a traditional sense, the UDF is a coalition of small parties whose principal shared characteristic is membership in the non-Gaullist Right. The party was formed in 1978 around then-president Valery Giscard d'Estaing as a means of generating parliamentary support and a base for reelection independent of the Gaullist majority. From the beginning the UDF coalition lacked a uniform set of principles and goals, and throughout its history it has often been difficult to distinguish its positions from those of the Gaullist Rassemblement pour la rTpublique (RPR). Despite some electoral successes the UDF remained the junior partner in the coalition with the RPR that governed France for over 20 years. Throughout its life the party was, largely, a forum for Giscard. With his withdrawal from the presidential race in 1995, it became clear that unless the party could move beyond its identification with the former president's career, ideas, and goals, its survival might be in jeopardy. After the failure of the UDF in the 1988 presidential elections and the decision not to put forward a candidate in 1995, after Giscard withdrew, the party seemed in danger of becoming irrelevant. Chirac's 1995 election seemed to confirm this. But, with the subsequent elevation of Socialist Lionel Jospin to Prime Minister following the 1997 elections, the Right may well face, once again, a situation in which only a coalition between the RPR and the UDF will ensure another parliamentary or presidential majority.
When, in 1962, the procedure for the election of presidents changed from the electoral college system to direct election the political process for presidential candidates also changed. Thanks to the leg...