acy of Charles de Gaulle the Constitution conceived of the president as "an arbiter above political institutions." This meant that presidents were to be elected on their own merits, rather than as the leaders of political parties. A presidential candidate must be seen as a representative of the national interest in order to exert broad enough appeal to survive the two ballots. Yet, at the same time, a presidential candidate also needs an electoral base, and almost anyone running for president will have spent his or her career as a representative of a political party. Thus, during a presidential campaign, party support is easily fractured when candidates, who generally "appeal to higher virtues (stability, legitimacy, pluralism and freedom) than those normally espoused by parties," adopt positions that trend counter to party or factional interests. Presidents have also grown increasingly dependent upon their party-based support in Parliament. The need for an electoral base and a supportive majority have thus produced a situation in which presidents--who are theoretically above the political fray, but must, after all, see legislation enacted and get reelected--are instead deeply involved in the mechanics of parties, especially in building coalitions and increasing party membership.
It was just such a situation that brought about the formation of the UDF, a true parti du prTsident. In need of electoral and parliamentary support in 1976, Giscard d'Estaing formed the UDF by bringing together his own Republicans in the Parti rTpublicain (the named they assumed in 1977) and several other parties. The first was the Centre des dTmocrates sociaux (CDS) , the "heir to the Christian Democrat movement that had existed under various names from the 1940s to the 1970s," and was then under the leadership of Jean Lecaunet. The second group was the Parti rTpublicain radical et radical socialiste (Radicals) of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber,...