Union of Democrats and Independents - UC

Centrist Union group Groupe Union centriste
Chamber	Senate
Previous name(s)	Popular Republicans group/Democratic Centre formation (1959–65) Groupe des Républicains populaires/Formation du Centre démocratique Popular Republicans and Democratic Centre group (1965–68) Groupe des Républicains populaires et du Centre démocratique Centrist Union of Democrats for Progress group (1968–84) Groupe de l'Union centriste des démocrates de progrès Centrist Union group (1984–2005) Groupe de l'Union centriste Centrist Union – Union for French Democracy group (2005–08) Groupe Union centriste – Union pour la démocratie française Centrist Union group (2008–11) Groupe Union centriste Centrist and Republican Union group (2011–12) Groupe Union centriste et républicaine Union of Democrats and Independents – UC group (2012–17) Groupe Union des démocrates et indépendants – UC Union of Democrats and Independents – Centrist Union group (2017) Groupe Union des démocrates et indépendants – Union centriste
Member parties	UDI MoDem AC
President	Hervé Marseille
Constituency	Hauts-de-Seine
Representation	50 / 348
Ideology	Liberalism
Website	http://udi-uc-senat.fr/

The Centrist Union group (French: groupe Union centriste, abbreviated UC) is a centrist parliamentary group in the Senate uniting members of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and Democratic Movement (MoDem), as well as the Centrist Alliance (AC), a former component of the UDI. The group was historically associated with the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and later the Democratic Centre (CD), Centre of Social Democrats (CDS), and Union for French Democracy (UDF). Most recently, from 2012 to 2017, it was known as the Union of Democrats and Independents – UC group (French: groupe Union des démocrates et indépendants – UC, abbreviated UDI–UC).

In the first election of the Council of the Republic of the Fourth Republic, the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) group (groupe du Mouvement républicain populaire) obtained 76 seats, a quarter of the upper chamber, following senatorial elections on 8 December 1946. During the debate on the existence of the upper chamber, the MRP advocated for a bicameral system in which both the roles and modes of election of the two houses were clearly distinguished from each other, calling for the replacement of the system of indirect universal suffrage to select electors with greater representation of local collectivities. This proposal eventually prevailed despite the reluctance of certain members of the MRP, cognizant of the fact that such a system would favor it significantly less. Indeed, with a lack of representation at the local level as a result of the 1947 municipal elections in which the newly-founded Rally of the French People (RPF) of Charles de Gaulle secured a massive victory (the RPF having deprived the MRP of its flag as the party of the resistance), the MRP was reduced to just 22 seats following the senatorial elections of 7 November 1948. and never regained its former strength through the duration of the republic, with 24 seats following senatorial elections on 18 May 1952, 21 seats following senatorial elections on 19 June 1955, and 23 seats following senatorial elections on 8 June 1958.