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.

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.

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.

[11] The National Centre of Independents and Peasants was expelled after its leader and only deputy Gilles Bourdouleix's resigned for saying Adolf Hitler had not killed enough Romani people.