The Popular Republican Union (french: Union Populaire Républicaine) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, founded in 2007 by

François Asselineau François Asselineau (, born 14 September 1957) is a French politician and an Inspector General for finances. Asselineau was a member of the Rally for France (RPF) and UMP before creating his own political party the Popular Republican Union ( ...

. The ideology of the party is a hard Eurosceptic, and seeks the withdrawal of

from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU pol ...

History

Foundation

After leaving the UMP (2006) and the ''Rally for an Independent and Sovereign France'' (RIF, :fr:Rassemblement pour l'indépendance et la souveraineté de la France) where Asselineau was a member of the steering committee for 3 months, in 2007, for the 50th anniversary of the

Rome Treaty The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was signe ...

signature, he created the Popular Republican Union (UPR).

2012 presidential election

Asselineau confirmed his candidacy for the

2012 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 22 April 2012 (or 21 April in some overseas departments and territories), with a second round run-off held on 6 May (or 5 May for those same territories) to elect the President of France (who is a ...

in December 2011 during the national congress of the party.Houchard, Béatrice
"Asselineau candidat à la présidentielle"
''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...

'', 3 December 2011. Retrieved on 1 October 2013 Asselineau was finally not among the ten candidates officially endorsed by the Constitutional council as he could muster only 17 signatures from elected officials out of the necessary 500

2012 legislative elections

Asselineau and

Régis Chamagne Regis or Régis may refer to: People * Regis (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (musician), full name Karl O'Connor, an English ...

ran for the legislative election in the Lot-et-Garonne's 3rd constituency UPR failed to reach the second round, receiving less than one half of one percent of the vote."Election législative partielle : les résultats définitifs"
, '' Villeneuve-sur-Lot'', 23 June 2013. Retrieved on 1 October 2013

2014 European Parliament election

The party participated in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

. However, a limited budget restricted active campaign mailings to only thirty ''departments''. UPR scored 0.41% of votes cast for France and Asselineau scored 0.56% of votes cast in the Île-de-France constituency.

2015 departmental elections

UPR ran in the 2015 departmental elections with 14 lists out of the 2,054 cantons. They intended to alert electors notably on UPR's program and that the local situation is the consequence of national and international circumstances. They were hoping to score honorably.

2015 regional elections

In the regional elections of 2015, the UPR has just under 2,000 candidates in the 12 new continental metropolitan areas and in an overseas region, Reunion Island, which Slate calls "Amazing Performance For this political formation without elected, nor public funding ". François Asselineau is the leader in Île-de-France. The UPR proposes "the organization of referendums on major regional issues, such as the Olympic Games in Île-de-France or Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the Pays-de-la-Loire" Referendums of popular initiative at the regional level ", the renovation of high schools and the improvement of public transport. On the national level, the UPR collects 0.87% of the votes cast (189 330 votes). In the Ile-de-France region, the list led by François Asselineau received 0.94% of the votes cast (29 755 votes). The UPR invites voters to abstain on the second round of the election.

2017 presidential election

Asselineau declared that he would seek to run in the

2017 French presidential election The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a Two-round system, runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of La République En Marche!, En Ma ...

, and managed to secure the 500 necessary sponsorships required to be listed on the first-round ballot. he got 332,547 votes or 0.92% coming in 9th place.

Ideology

UPR runs on an anti-EU platform stating that all French policy decisions are made by an "unelected oligarchy, not French," leading to the political disaffection of the French public, and that the continued rule of the EU over European affairs will lead to a "global apartheid".Dupont, Isabelle
"Un petit candidat contre la grande Europe"
'' Nord éclair'', February 29, 2012. Retrieved on 1 October 2013 UPR promotes that withdrawal from the

and the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

by the usage of TEU Article 50De Boissieu, Laurent
"Ces "petits" candidats qui veulent se faire entendre"
'' La croix'', March 15, 2012. Retrieved on 1 October 2013 as a first step to get France out of its current crisis by regaining capital, goods and person flow regulation control. For military sovereignty, UPR also consider France withdrawal from the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

.Schrepf, Jerôme
"Villeneuve-sur-lot. L'UPR entre conquête et résistance"
''LaDépêche.fr'', May 24, 2013. Retrieved on 1 October 2013 UPR also favors nationalisation of entities such as TF1, La Poste,

Gaz de France Gaz de France (GDF) was a French company which produced, transported and sold natural gas around the world, especially in France, its main market. The company was also particularly active in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other Europea ...

,Moulinier, Ève. "François Asselineau, le candidat qui dit non à l'UE", ''

Le Dauphiné Libéré ''Le Dauphiné libéré'' is a provincial daily French newspaper known for its emphasis on local news and events. The paper is published in Grenoble, France. History and profile Founded in 1945, it takes the name from the former province of Da ...

'' page 4, 12 February 2012. Retrieved on 1 October 2013 highways, water management and troubled banks.

Policy

* Constitutional reforms would only be allowed by referendum. * Reintroduction of articles of the Constitution; the one about the "Conspiracy against the state" and the other about the "Treachary of the President", which had been removed in 1993 and 2007 respectively. * The instauration of popular initiative referendums like in Switzerland. * When the protest votes win an election, the election will be reorganised excluding the previous candidates. * To stop forced regroupments of communes. * To withdraw France from the EU,

and

. * To make up with Russia, China, Arab states and Latin American states. * To be a non-allied country. * To prohibit electronic voting. * To establish a

Constitutional court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

like the one in Germany. * To establish a quorum of 60% of parliament attendance. * To make media's fund public. * To protect whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. * To nationalise water, electricity, railways, highways, the communication company Orange, banks receiving public aid and the post. * To ban

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

inside the parliament. * To make

think tanks A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental org ...

' fund public. * To raise the minimum wage to 1300 euros per month from 1153. * To establish a minimum retirement benefit of 950 euros per month. * To ban genetically modified crops.

Relationship with the media and Internet activism

In February 2012, François Asselineau and his party, UPR, claimed they were "barred from the major media" ("''barrés des grands médias''") and "banned from going on the air" ("''interdits d'antenne''") as " heirideas are upsetting" ("'' eurdiscours dérange''"). In 2014, UPR described itself as being "the most censored party in France".Yann Thompson
Européennes: la galère des petits candidats

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

, 21 May 2014 On 23 April 2014, François Asselineau's party sent a registered letter to

Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel The (, ''lit.'' ''Superior Audiovisual Council''), abbreviated CSA, was a French institution created in 1989 whose role was to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television. The creation of the was a measure foun ...

(Audiovisual Superior Council) to demand "urgent action regarding the mainstream broadcasting media to have them accept UPR at last in their broadcasts". The "news blackout" that Asselineau allegedly had to deal with was criticized again after the 2014 European elections, as his party obtained slightly more votes than Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste (0.41% ''vs'' 0.39%) without further attracting attention from the mainstream media. In March 2012, Asselineau complained about the "censorship" he faced on

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...

from which his article had been deleted several times for lack of renown. In February 2013, UPR complained about what it called "the ill treatment of François Asselineau and UPR on Wikipedia", with an extended report on the subject established by the "''Groupe Wiki de l'UPR – Cybermilitantisme''" (the "UPR Wiki Group- Internet activism"). Asselineau and his team are very active on the Internet:Législative partielle: la galaxie des micro-partis
''Sud-Ouest'', 11 June 2013. UPR claim to have developed "solely on the Internet" ("''exclusivement en ligne''") and bank above all on this activism to try to become notable. Rudy Reichstadt characterizes UPR as "a real phenomenon on the Internet", noting that it is "difficult to miss it when one is interested in the conspiracist circles" ("''difficile de passer à côté lorsqu'on s'intéresse à la mouvance complotiste''"). In 2012, UPR created the position of "national manager for

Internet activism Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular inf ...

" ("''responsable national au cybermilitantisme''"), whose responsibility is to develop and coordinate the various people conducting such activism ("''actions cybermilitantes''"). However, there has been some backlash to this activism. mentions the harassment that "every journalist has had to deal with, one day or another, at the hands of some UPR activists". Laurent Ruquier likewise noted that he invited François Asselineau to '' On n'est pas couché'' because of incessant Twitter pressure., at 2 mn 10" (accessed on October 4th, 2014). After the broadcast of this program, an article on the collaborative website of ''

L'Obs (), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...

'' (Le Plus) expressed doubts about the granting of speaking time to "this kind of conspiracist",. while suggested that Laurent Ruquier had in fact invited Asselineau in order to ridicule his anti-European ideas.On ne touche pas à l’Europe chez Ruquier…
''Causeur'', September 22d, 2014 On 28 October 2018, the CSA considered that France 5 has failed to comply with its obligation of rigour by assimilating the UPR to an extreme right-wing party.France 5 épinglée par le CSA pour avoir présenté l’UPR comme un parti d’extrême droite
''Le Parisien'', October 30th, 2018

Membership

UPR claim to be a growing party despite what they deem to be "a blacklisting from the national media". The party has thus developed exclusively online strategies; Asselineau's conferences, for instance, have gathered more than two million views. UPR states theirs is the most visited French political party website as evidenced by their

Alexa rank Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon. Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock. ...

.Lemonnier, Jérôme
"Les « petits partis » partent à l’assaut des européennes"
''Essonne Info'', 22 May 2014. Retrieved on 24 June 2014. In 2013, the university researcher, Jean-Yves Camus doubts the reality of membership figures.Législative partielle: la galaxie des micro-partis
''Sud-Ouest'', Grégoire Morizet, 11 June 2013. The 15 December 2016, UPR knows a large success : it counts from now on 14 000 membership, with an average of +26 membership per day.

Electoral results

References

External links

Official website
{{in lang, fr Political parties in France Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Eurosceptic parties in France 2007 establishments in France Political parties established in 2007 French nationalist parties Opposition to NATO