Arise the Republic

Arise the Republic (Debout la République, DLR) is a political party in France that used to be a faction within the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The party claims itself to be a traditional Gaullist group.

It is led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and has two seats in the French National Assembly. Dupont-Aignan failed to win the required 500 endorsements from elected officials to run in the 2007 presidential election. He dropped out without endorsing any candidate, not even UMP candidate and current President Nicolas Sarkozy. However, he was re-elected by the first round of the 2007 legislative election as a UMP-DLR candidate in his home department of Essonne.

The party is a member of EUDemocrats, a eurosceptic transnational European political party.

Popular support and electoral record

DLR has little electoral support, and its support is concentrated in Dupont-Aignan's department of Essonne, where the DLR list polled 5.02% in the 2009 European Parliament election and it polled up to 36.14% in his hometown of Yerres The party also polled well in the Île-de-France region (2.44%), the North-West (2.4%) and the East constituency (2.33%). All of these regions include conservative and Gaullist departments. For example, it polled 8.45% in the Gaullist stronghold of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, Charles de...
Read More