Democratic and Social Centre (France)

The Democratic and Social Centre (Centre des démocrates sociaux, CDS) was a French christian-democratic party. It was founded on 23 May 1976 by the merger of the Democratic Centre, Centre, Democracy and Progress, with former members of the Popular Republican Movement, the National Centre of Independents and Peasants, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance. On 1 February 1978, CDS was a founding member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), alongside the Republican Party of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and the Radical Party of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber. It was the centerist and Christian-Democratic component of the UDF confederation. On 25 November 1995, CDS merged with the Social Democratic Party to form Democratic Force, founding component of the New UDF on 16 September 1998.

Presidents

• Jean Lecanuet (1976-82)
• Pierre Méhaignerie (1982-94)
• François Bayrou (1994-95)

•  • e Centrist parties in France
Popular Republican Movement (1944-1967) Democratic Centre (1966-1976) Centre, Democracy and Progress (1969-1976) Union for French Democracy (1978-1998) composed of Democratic and Social Centre, Republican Party, Social Democratic Party, Democratic Force New UDF (1998-2007) Liberal Democracy (1998-2002) Democratic Movement (2007- ) New Centre (2007- )
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