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| Radical Party of the Left Parti radical de gauche |
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| Leader | Jean-Michel Baylet |
| Founded | 1971 (GEARS) 1972 (MGRS) 1973 (MRG) 1994 (Radical) 1996 (PRS) 1998 (PRG) |
| Headquarters | 15, rue Duroc 75007, Paris |
| Ideology | Radicalism, Social liberalism |
| International affiliation | None |
| European affiliation | European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (observer member) |
| Official colours | Yellow, Blue |
| Seats in the National Assembly |  |
| Seats in the Senate |  |
| Seats in the European Parliament |  |
| Website | |
| Planeteradicale.org | |
| Politics of France Political parties Elections Constitution of France Parliament; Government; President |
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The Radical Party of the Left (Parti Radical de Gauche, PRG) is a minor social-liberal and social-democratic political party in France.
The PRG retains some support among middle-class voters and in traditional Radical areas in the South-West, but it only gains parliamentary representation by courtesy of the Socialist Party, with which it has been in close alliance since 1982, often running joint lists or candidates. The PRG is the major left-wing party in Haute-Corse.
Its President is Jean-Michel Baylet and its Secretary-General is Elisabeth Boyer.
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History
The party was formed in 1972 by a split from the Republican, Radical, and Radical-Socialist Party, once the dominant party of the French left. It was founded by the Radicals who chose to join the "Union of the Left" and to agree its Common Programme signed by the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. At that time the party was known as the Movement of the Radical-Socialist Left (Mouvement de la Gauche Radicale-Socialiste), then as the Movement of Radicals of the Left (Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche).
Led by Robert Fabre in the 1970s, the party was the third partner of the "Union of the Left". Nevertheless, its electoral influence was not coparable with the ones of its two allies which competed for the leadership over the left. It went through its first major crisis when Robert Fabre came close to President Giscard d'Estaing. He was excluded.
Michel Crépeau was nominated by the party for the presidential candidacy in 1981. It obtained 2% in the first round and called to vote for the wining candidate François Mitterrand in the secound. The Radicals of the Left played a supporting role in governmental coalition dominated by the Socialists from 1981 to 1986, and again from 1988 to 1993.
At the beginning of the 1990s, under the leadership of the popular businessmen Bernard Tapie, they hoped to benefit from the crisis of the Socialist Party. The list led by Tapie obtained 10% of the votes in the 1994 European Parliament election. However Tapie retired from politics in due to his judicial problems and the party, renamed Radical Party (Parti Radical), returned to its lowest ebb.
After the Radical Party took proceedings, it must change its name in Radical Party of the Left (PRG). From 1997 to 2002 it came back in government as junior component of the Plural Left coalition. In the 2002 presidential election, the PRG decided to nominate its own candidate for the first time since 1981. It chose Christiane Taubira who 2.3% of the vote. Taubira gave her name to the 2001 law which declared the Atlantic slave trade a crime against humanity.
In the 2007 presidential election, while the party supported the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, Bernard Tapie, who had been a leading figure in the PRG, supported Nicolas Sarkozy.
In the 2007 legislative election the party won seven out of 577 seats, in addition to two overseas seats in Guyane (Taubira) and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.
In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party will not run or support any list, not even the PS lists.
Elected officials
- Deputies: Gérard Charasse (Allier), Paul Giacobbi (Haute-Corse), Annick Girardin (Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon), Joël Giraud (Hautes-Alpes), Dominique Orliac (Lot), Sylvia Pinel (Tarn-et-Garonne), Chantal Robin-Rodrigo (Hautes-Pyrénées), Christiane Taubira (Walwari-PRG, French Guyana) (SRC Group)
- Senators: Jean-Michel Baylet (Tarn-et-Garonne), Yvon Collin (Tarn-et-Garonne), Nicolas Alfonsi (Corse-du-Sud), François Vendasi, (Haute-Corse), Raymond Vall (Gers), Anne-Marie Escoffier (Aveyron),François Fortassin (Hautes-Pyrénées), Françoise Laborde (Haute-Garonne), Jacques Mézard (Cantal), Jean Milhau (Lot) (RDSE Group)
Popular support and electoral record
Presidential
| Election year | Candidate | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Michel Crépeau | 642,847 | 2.21% | — | — |
| 2002 | Christiane Taubira | 660,447 | 2.32% | — | — |
Legislative
| Election year | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | classified as PS | 13[1] | |
| 1978 | 603,932 | 2.11% | 10 |
| 1981 | classified as PS | 14[1] | |
| 1986 | 107,769 | 0.38% | 7[2] |
| 1988 | 272,316 | 1.11% | 9 |
| 1993 | classified as PS or DVG | 6 | |
| 1997 | 389,782 | 1.53% | 12 |
| 2002 | 388,891 | 1.54% | 7 |
| 2007 | 343,565 | 1.32% | 7 |
European Parliament
| Election year | Number of votes | % of overall vote | # of seats won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | ran on PS list | 2 | |
| 1984 | 670,474 | 3.32%[3] | 0 |
| 1989 | ran on PS list | 2 | |
| 1994 | 2,344,457 | 12.03% | 13 |
| 1999 | ran on PS list | 2 | |
| 2004 | 121,573 | 0.71% | 0 |
Leadership
Party presidents:
- Robert Fabre (1972–1978)
- Michel Crépeau (1978–1981)
- Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg (1981–1983)
- Jean-Michel Baylet (1983–1985)
- François Doubin (1985–1988)
- Yvon Collin (1988–1989)
- Émile Zuccarelli (1989–1992)
- Jean-François Hory (1992–1996)
- Jean-Michel Baylet (1996–...)
See also
References
- ^ a b "France-politique.com". http://www.france-politique.fr/mouvement-des-radicaux-de-gauche.htm.
- ^ Including 5 elected on PS-MRG lists in various departments
- ^ Results of the Entente radicale écologiste pour les États-Unis d'Europe, which included the MRG but also ecologists (Brice Lalonde) and centrists (Olivier Stirn)
External links
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