Popular Republican Union (1919

The Popular Republican Union (, UPR) 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

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 ...

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. The UPR became the dominant party in

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

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

, the Lorrain Republican Union (URL) was considered the UPR's sister party. Founded in 1919, the UPR attracted most of the Alsatian adherents of the Catholic Centre Party in Alsace-Lorraine, formed since the mid-1890s, forming 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. Ideologically, the UPR was much more conservative than the social-Catholic Popular Democratic Party, but more moderate than the main French Catholic party, the Republican Federation. During the 1920s its members had largely sat in parliament among the Republican Federation group. Considering this to have grown too

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

, French-nationalist and

centralist Centralisation or centralization (American English) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning, decision-making, and framing strategies and policies, become concentrated within a particular ...

, they set up their own parliamentary group: the Republicans of the Centre (1932 to 1936) and the Independents of Popular Action (1936 to 1940). The UPR, URL, 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). {{DEFAULTSORT:Popular Republican Union (1919-1946) Defunct political parties in France Political parties of the French Third Republic Christian democratic parties in Europe Right-wing parties in France Alsace independence movement Catholic political parties German diaspora political parties