After the creation of the first club in Paris in 1965, Michel Poniatowski, Jean-Pierre Fourcade, Jacques Dominati and others launched the national federation the following year, in parallel with the structuring of the Independent Republicans.
Indeed, in January 1966, Giscard was not re-appointed as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and decided to structure the Gaullist wing of the National Centre of Independents and Peasants, which had grouped itself within the parliamentary group of the Independent Republicans in 1962, into a political party, by creating regional committees and a national federation.
At the same time, he encouraged the creation of the CPR network, a non-partisan organisation, in order to open the new party to civil society and serve as a "doctrine laboratory", sort of think tank, and "pool" of future party activists and executives.
The Clubs offered a transversal structure, not attached to one of the constituent parties, even though the majority of its members were Republican affiliates.
In the first round of the 1995 presidential election, most UDF members supported incumbent Prime Minister Édouard Balladur, against the instruction of Giscard who had called to vote for the other Rally for the Republic (RPR) candidate Jacques Chirac, who went on to win.