The Republicans (French: Les Républicains [le ʁepyblikɛ̃]; LR) is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism.

[6][2][7] The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of the then-president of France, Jacques Chirac.

Following the 2017 legislative election, LR became the second-largest party in the National Assembly, behind President Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche!

He was replaced by Christian Jacob, who remained in office until after the 2022 legislative election, which saw LR lose half of its seats, although it became the kingmaker in a hung parliament.

[15] Sarkozy wanted to change the name of the party to showcase the reunification of the disparate political views, from the social Gaullism of Henri Guaino to the right line of Patrick Buisson, into "one family".

[16][14][17] As declared in an interview for the Journal du Dimanche, Sarkozy also wished to change the name in order to be ahead of his adversaries Alain Juppé and François Fillon (also belonging to the UMP) for the 2017 presidential election.

[24][23] The court ruled in favour of the UMP's change in name, stating that the "manifestly unlawful disturbance" and the "imminent damage" alleged by the complainants have not been demonstrated.

[citation needed] This party foundation was published in the Journal officiel de la République française on 25 April 2015.

[29] On 3 July 2016, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would resign as leader that year in order to compete to be the centre-right candidate in the 2017 presidential election.

[31] The activists of the movement could choose between seven candidates: François Fillion, Alain Juppé, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-François Copé, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Bruno Le Maire and Jean-Frédéric Poisson.

[33] This led to the victory of Emmanuel Macron,[34] leader of his newly created party La République En Marche!.

[36] This defeat is mainly due to the Penelopegate scandal, as François Fillon was considered the favourite candidate by the polls before these revelations.

[45] On 2 June 2019, a week after overseeing the worst result for the centre-right in its history in the European elections with 8.48% of the vote, Wauquiez announced his resignation as president of The Republicans.

[60] Ciotti's decision to ally with the RN was endorsed by the leader of the Les Jeunes Républicains Guilhem Carayon and by MEP Céline Imart, a member of the Fédération nationale des syndicats d'exploitants agricoles (FNSEA).

LR have been described as experiencing a rightward turn under Éric Ciotti, their present leader, and his predecessor Laurent Wauquiez,[54][68] in an effort to distinguish the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency.