The party was composed of separate political parties that retained their legal independence, but were in coalition with the larger right-wing party The Republicans (LR, formerly the Union for a Popular Movement). As most of them have been expelled or left, the Democratic European Force (FED) is the last of the founding parties to remain a participant in the UDI.
The party's current president is Senator Hervé Marseille of the FED, also president of the Centrist Union group in the Senate. He succeeded Jean-Christophe Lagarde, who was elected at the congress of the party on 15 November 2014, following the resignation of Jean-Louis Borloo on 6 April 2014 for health reasons.[5]
On 9 October 2012, the leaderships of the parties making up the UDI parliamentary group announced the creation of a new political party and set up a temporary office in Paris. On 21 October, a founding assembly was convened at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris, which marked the official foundation of the movement.[6]
Following the congress of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) on 18 November 2012 and the ensuing tensions between the two rival candidates for the party's presidency, a number of leading figures of the UMP announced that they were joining the UDI, including former cabinet minister and deputy Pierre Méhaignerie and Mayenne deputy Yannick Favennec. However, during a legislative by-election on 9 and 16 December 2012 in the Val-de-Marne's 1st constituency, UDI incumbent Henri Plagnol - a former member of the UMP who had joined the UDI in June - was defeated by a right-wing dissident, Sylvain Berrios.[7]
The 2014 elections involved an alliance with the forces of the Democratic Movement (MoDem); this joint list, The Alternative (L'Alternative), saw three UDI MEPs out of seven elected from the list. The change in seats shown is since the 2009 election for the MoDem list.
