The Right (France)

The Right (French: La Droite) is a political party in France founded in 1998 by former Defence Minister Charles Millon. This came following his expulsion from the Union for French Democracy (UDF) due to alliances he formed with the National Front (FN), which allowed him to get reelected as president of the Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes. Some of the most conservative French right-wingers such as Michel Junot, Claude Reichman, Jean-François Touzé, Alain Griotteray and Michel Poniatowski were present at the creation of the movement.

After the failure of Millon's project to merge La Droite into Charles Pasqua's Rassemblement pour la France (RPF) and the Centre national des indépendants et paysans (CNI), Millon founded the Liberal Christian Right (Droite libérale-chrétienne, DLC) in October 1999. However, most members of La Droite refused to join the new party; only three deputies, including Millon, joined. Two of these deputies (including Millon in Rhône's 7th constituency) were defeated at the 2002 legislative election while the third did not run. In September 2003, Millon was named the French ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, while the Millonist group at the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council (Oui à Rhône-Alpes, ORA) fusionned with the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) conservative party, led by Nicolas Sarkozy. The DLC was therefore put in stand-by although it officially continued to exist.