Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the main conservative party in France?
The Republicans (; LR) is a centre-right, Gaullist and conservative political party in France.
Despite this, most of his ideas were implemented in 1958 when De Gaulle created the Fifth Republic and established a presidentialist system based around his RPF party. However, De Gaulle was pushed in the short term to decide in favour of Jean Moulin's proposal as he still struggled to show the Allies (Americans in particular) that he was not a dictator. Brossolette's ideas of a Resistance party raised many opponents' fears of a "bonapartian" drift, especially among fellow socialists in London among which Pierre Cot and Raymond Aron. This seemed to be confirmed to his detractor's eyes when Brossolette succeeded a bold blow against the Vichy regime by exfiltrating from France Charles Vallin, deputy leader of conservative PSF (Parti Social Français) that had surged as the main French party with over 30% at pre-war elections, but deemed proto-fascist by the left. Hence the French Fourth Republic eventually reverted to the Third Republic's pre-war parliamentarist system.
Although most politicians supported de Gaulle, Mitterrand, who opposed the new Constitution, famously denounced "a permanent coup d'état" in 1964. On 28 September 1958, a referendum took place and 79.2% of those who voted supported the new constitution and the creation of the Fifth Republic. The colonies (Algeria was officially three departments of France, not a colony) were given the choice between immediate independence and the new constitution. All colonies voted for the new constitution and the replacement of the French Union by the French Community, except Guinea, which thus became the first French African colony to gain independence, at the cost of the immediate cessation of all French assistance.
The present FPÖ has variously been described as right-wing populist, national conservative, "right-conservative", "right-national", and far right. The party has traditionally been part of the national liberal camp, and generally identifies with a "freiheitlich" (libertarian) profile. Leading current party members such as Andreas Mölzer and Harald Vilimsky have considered themselves as national liberal "cultural Germans", while Barbara Rosenkranz has considered her ideology as national conservative.
Affected by sinistrisme, few conservatives explicitly called themselves right-wing during the Third Republic as it became a term associated with the counter-revolution and anti-republican feelings and by the 1900s was reserved for reactionary groups. Those Legitimists who had rallied to the Republic in 1893, after Chambord's death ten years before still called themselves "Droite constitutionnelle" or "républicaine" (Constitutional or Republican Right). However, they changed their name in 1899 and entered the 1902 elections under the name "Action libérale" (Liberal Action). By 1910, the only group which openly claimed descent from the right-wing gathered only nostalgic royalists and from 1924 on the term right-wing practically vanished from the parliamentary right's glossary.
The Lorrain Republican Union (, URL) was a Christian democratic party in Moselle, France during the Third Republic. Founded in 1919, the URL became the dominant party in Moselle during the Interwar era. In Alsace, the Popular Republican Union (UPR) was considered the URL's sister party. The URL was much more conservative than the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), the main Christian democratic party in the rest of France at the time.
The Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats (formerly as the Liberal Party) have, in modern times, been considered the UK's three major political parties, representing the British traditions of conservatism, socialism and liberalism, respectively. However, in both the 2015 and 2017 general elections, the Scottish National Party was the third-largest party by number of seats won, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that contest elections only in one part of the UK: Plaid Cymru (Wales only); and the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland only). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Féin members of parliament have ever attended the House of Commons to speak on behalf of their constituents because of the requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the monarch.
During the French Revolution the National Convention became the executive power of France, following the execution of King Louis XVI. With powerful members, such as Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, the Jacobin Club, a French political party established in 1790, at the birth of the revolution, managed to secure control of the government and pursue the revolution to their own ends, culminating in a "Reign of Terror". Its repressive policies resulted in insurrection across much of France, including the three largest cities after Paris, namely Lyon, Marseille and Toulon, in the south of France.
In the 21st century, France is by far the largest producer and consumer of foie gras, though it is produced and consumed in several other countries worldwide, particularly in some other European nations, the United States, and China. Approximately 30,000 people are members of the French foie gras industry, with 90% of them residing in the Périgord (Dordogne), the Aquitaine régions in the southwest, and Alsace région in the east. The European Union recognizes the foie gras produced according to traditional farming methods ("label rouge") in southwestern France with a geographical indication of provenance.
In 1789, Revolutionary France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the National Convention was elected by all men in 1792. It was revoked by the Directory in 1795. Universal male suffrage was re-established in France in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848.
The party combines left-wing economic policies with conservative social values, socio-cultural authoritarianism, and ethnic nationalism. Several researchers have described the party as fiscally centre-left, socially conservative, a "centre-based populist party" or the "most left-wing of the non-socialist parties", whereas other scholars have described them as radically right-wing populist. In the parliament seating order, the party's MPs have always been seated in the centre and the party's supporters have described themselves as centrists as well. The party has drawn people from left-wing parties but central aspects of their manifesto have gained support from right-wing voters as well. The Finns Party has been compared by international media to the other Nordic populist parties and other similar nationalist and right-wing populist movements in Europe that share euroscepticism and are critical of globalism, whilst noting its strong support for the Finnish welfare state.
Monarchism continues to exist in France. The historian Julian T. Jackson wrote in 2001 that "Indeed in the Vendée there are still families today who will not receive descendants of people who bought "biens nationaux" during the Revolution." Falling into one of the three main monarchist streams, some of the active groups in France today are:The French dynastic disputes refer to a set of disputes in the history of France regarding the person who should inherit the crown.
De Gaulle and his supporters proposed a system of strong presidents elected for seven-year terms. The President, under the proposed constitution, would have executive powers to run the country in consultation with a prime minister whom he would appoint. On 1 June 1958, Charles de Gaulle was appointed head of the government; on 3 June 1958, a constitutional law empowered the new government to draft a new constitution of France, and another law granted Charles de Gaulle and his cabinet the power to rule by decree for up to six months, except on certain matters related to the basic rights of citizens (criminal law, etc.). These plans were approved by more than 80% of those who voted in the referendum of 28 September 1958. The new constitution was signed into law on 4 October 1958. Since each new constitution established a new republic, France moved from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic.
The Fifth Republic, France's current republican system of government, was established by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the Fourth Republic, replacing the former parliamentary republic with a semi-presidential, or dual-executive, system that split powers between a Prime Minister as head of government and a President as head of state. De Gaulle, who was the first French President elected under the Fifth Republic in December 1958, believed in a strong head of state, which he described as embodying ("the spirit of the nation").
Following the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War, France once again became a republic – the French Third Republic – in 1870. The President of the Third Republic had significantly less executive powers than those of the previous two republics had. The Third Republic lasted until the invasion of France by Nazi Germany in 1940. Following the end of the war, the French Fourth Republic was constituted along similar lines in 1946. The Fourth Republic saw an era of great economic growth in France and the rebuilding of the nation's social institutions and industry after the war, and played an important part in the development of the process of European integration, which changed the continent permanently. Some attempts were made to strengthen the executive branch of government to prevent the unstable situation that had existed before the war, but the instability remained and the Fourth Republic saw frequent changes in government – there were 20 governments in ten years. Additionally, the government proved unable to make effective decisions regarding decolonization. As a result, the Fourth Republic collapsed and what some critics considered to be a de facto coup d'état, subsequently legitimized by a referendum on 5 October 1958, led to the establishment of the French Fifth Republic in 1959.
The objectives of the Party of European Socialists, the European Parliament's socialist and social democratic bloc, are now "to pursue international aims in respect of the principles on which the European Union is based, namely principles of freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy, respect of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and respect for the Rule of Law". As a result, today the rallying cry of the French Revolution—"Liberté, égalité, fraternité"—is promoted as essential socialist values. To the left of the PES at the European level is the Party of the European Left (PEL), also commonly abbreviated "European Left"), which is a political party at the European level and an association of democratic socialist, socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed in January 2004 for the purposes of running in the 2004 European Parliament elections. PEL was founded on 8–9 May 2004 in Rome.
The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty.
The French National Day is the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a turning point of the French Revolution, as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790. Celebrations are held throughout France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, along with other French officials and foreign guests.
Since then the Conservative and Labour parties have dominated British politics, and have alternated in government ever since. However, the UK is not quite a two-party system as other parties have significant support. The Liberal Democrats were the third largest party until the 2015 general election when they were overtaken by the Scottish National Party in terms of seats and UK political party membership, and by the UK Independence Party in terms of votes.
The demography of France is monitored by the Institut national d'études démographiques (INED) and the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE). As of 1 January 2018, 67.19 million people lived in France (67,186,638), including all the five overseas departments (2,141,000), but excluding the overseas collectivities and territories (604,000). 65,017,000 of these lived in Metropolitan France, which is mainland France located in Europe.
In the 19th century, Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire. His subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, and was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. The Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and typically retained close economic and military connections with France.
In France, the Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition party is a moderate conservative, agrarianist party, reaching a peak of 4.23% in the French presidential election, 2002. It would later on become affiliated to France's main conservative party, Union for a Popular Movement.
The Gauche Plurielle (French for "Plural Left") was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party ("Parti socialiste" or PS), the French Communist Party ("Parti communiste français" or PCF), the Greens, the Left Radical Party ("Parti radical de gauche" or PRG), and the Citizens' Movement ("Mouvement des citoyens" or MDC). Succeeding Alain Juppé's conservative government, the Plural Left governed France from 1997 to 2002. It was another case of cohabitation between rival parties at the head of the state and of the government (Jacques Chirac as President and Lionel Jospin as Prime minister). Following the failure of the left at the 2002 legislative election, it was replaced by another conservative government, this time headed by Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
In France, the main right-wing populist party is the National Front. Since Marine Le Pen's election at the head of the party in 2011, the National Front has established itself as one of the main political parties in France and also as the strongest and most successful populist party of Europe as of 2015.
The Democratic and Social Action (, ADS) was a French parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies of France during the French Third Republic between 1928 and 1932. The group was formed by the right-wing (bourgeois and industrialist wing according to André Siegfried) of the Democratic Republican Alliance, later Democratic Alliance. A number of ADS deputies were formerly members of the most left-wing faction of the Republican Federation, the main conservative party in France which they had left due to the Federation's evolution to the right.