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Nicolas Sarkozy
(Last President)
The 2012 leadership election of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a political party in France was held on 18 November 2012. It renewed the leadership structures of the UMP following Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat in the 2012 presidential election and the party's defeat in the subsequent legislative election. The disputed results led to the first open crisis in the UMP since its creation in 2002.
Incumbent General Secretary Jean-François Copé defeated former Prime Minister François Fillon.
While the UMP's two previous congresses in 2002 and 2004 had been held at the Bourget, there was no physical congress organized in 2012 and the congress was decentralized in each departmental federation of the UMP.
Nicolas Sarkozy was the UMP's last president, between 2004 and 2007. Following his election to the presidency of France in 2007, the UMP modified its statutes to create a collegial presidency led by a secretary-general during the duration of his term in office. His defeat meant that the UMP needed to hold a new presidential election.
Candidates seeking to run for the party presidency needed to win the endorsements of at least 3% of party members (as of 30 June 2012), or 7,924 members, from at least 10 different departmental federations. Each candidate created a "ticket" with two other party members for the offices of vice-president and secretary-general of the UMP.
Candidacies, including all endorsements, were due before 18 September 2012.
The UMP's original statutes in 2002 allowed for the organization of formal factions or movements within the party, to represent the various political families of which it was made up. However, fearing leadership rivalries and divisions, Juppé, Chirac and later Sarkozy 'postponed' the creation of such organized movements indefinitely. Nevertheless, prior to the organizations of formal "movements" in November 2012, there existed informal groupings of like-minded members, either through associations, political clubs, associated political parties or even informal factions.