The Social Democratic Party (, , PSD) was a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

political party in France. Originally named Democratic Socialist Movement of France (''Mouvement démocrate socialiste de France'', MDSF), the party was founded in 1973, by a split from the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS). Its founders (among them Max Lejeune, André Santini, Pierre-Cristophe Baguet, Charles Baur, Émile Muller, Joseph Klifa and Auguste Locoeur) opposed to the alliance with the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

(PCF) arranged by

François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

on behalf of the PS based on the '' Common Programme''. In 1978, the PSD joined the

Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy ( ; UDF) was a centre-right political party in France. The UDF was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over ...

(UDF), the

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

confederation created in order to support President

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, ; ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Ministry of the Economy ...

. In 1995, the PSD merged with the

Centre of Social Democrats The Centre of Social Democrats (French: ''Centre des démocrates sociaux'', , CDS; also translated as the "Democratic and Social Centre") was a Christian-democratic and centrist political party in France. It existed from 1976 to 1995 and was base ...

(CDS), the

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 a ...

component of the confederation, to form Democratic Force (FD), which later became the core of a unified UDF in 1998.

References

Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Political parties established in 1973 Political parties disestablished in 1995 Centrist parties in France Social democratic parties in France 1973 establishments in France 1995 disestablishments in France {{France-party-stub