The Lorrain Republican Union ({{langx, fr, Union républicaine lorraine, URL) was a

Christian democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

party in

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

during the Third Republic. Founded in 1919, the URL became the dominant party in Moselle during the

Interwar era In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ...

. In

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, 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 URL was founded in 1919 by former Lorrain members of the Catholic Zentrum in Alsace-Lorraine, formed since the mid-1890s and being with 31% of the seats the strongest party in the

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

of the former Alsace-Lorraine, in order to defend Moselle's judicial specificity. In the 1919 French legislative election the URL won 65% of the votes and all its candidates were elected, including a young

Robert Schuman Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 1886 – 4 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born France, French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democrat, Christian democratic (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. ...

. In 1923, the URL loosely allied itself to the conservative

Republican Federation The Republican Federation (, FR) was the largest conservative party during the French Third Republic, gathering together the Progressive Republicans and the Orléanists rallied to the Republic. Founded in November 1903, the party competed with ...

became known as the Republican Democratic Union (URD) in 1929. The URL-URD evolved to become more of an electoral coalition rather than an organized political party, an evolution all too common in France at the time. Despite the independence of its members, the URL maintained a strong base due to the support of the clergy, mayors, industrialists, and the media. Despite support for the Catholic Church and Lorrain specificity, the URL was not an autonomist party and in fact the URL fought Moselle's Catholic autonomists. The UPL, UPR, and PDP merged in 1946 to the create the

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Schuman, Paul Coste-Floret, Pierre-Henr ...

(MRP).

Elections

The URL won all seats in Moselle in 1919 and 1924, and won 5 out of 9 seats in 1928. The party also had 5 Senators and controlled Moselle's general council. In the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, the URL's parliamentarians sat with various groups from the centre-right and the right before forming, with the Alsatian UPR, the

Republicans of the Centre The Republicans of the Centre and the Independents of Popular Action were the names given to a parliamentary group in the French Chamber of Deputies of France, Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic, composed mainly of Political catholicis ...

in 1932 and the Independents of Popular Action in 1936. Defunct political parties in France German diaspora political parties Political parties of the French Third Republic Christian democratic parties in Europe Right-wing parties in France 1919 establishments in France Political parties established in 1919 Catholic political parties Political parties of minorities in France