The Republicans (France)

The Republicans ( , LR) is a liberal conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then-President of France, Jacques Chirac.

The UMP used to be one of the two major political parties in the French Fifth Republic, along with the centre-left Socialist Party, before being eclipsed by the National Rally and Renaissance. LR's candidate in the 2017 presidential election, former Prime Minister François Fillon, placed third in the first round, with 20.0% of the vote. Following the 2017 legislative election, LR became the second-largest party in the National Assembly, behind President Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche! party (later renamed Renaissance).

After a disappointing result in the 2019 European Parliament election, party leader Laurent Wauquiez resigned. He was replaced by Christian Jacob, who remained in office until after the 2022 legislative election, which saw LR lose half of its seats, although it became the kingmaker in a hung parliament. One month before, in the 2022 presidential election, LR nominee Valérie Pécresse placed fifth with 4.7% of the vote. Despite those setbacks, LR was still the largest party in the Senate and headed a plurality of regions of France.

LR is a member of the Centrist Democrat International and the European People's Party, and sits in the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament. Éric Ciotti became president of LR after the 2022 leadership election. During an 11 June interview, Ciotti spoke in favor of an electoral alliance with National Rally to contest the upcoming 2024 French legislative election. That would have reversed the historic ''cordon sanitaire'' that the party had regarding the group. Ciotti was expelled from his leadership position the following day and from the party on 14 June, though both decisions were reversed by a Paris court on the same day. Provided by Wikipedia