The Centrists, known as The Centrists – New Centre since 2018, formerly known as New Centre and European Social Liberal Party, is a centre-right political party in France formed by the members of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) – including 18 of the 29 members of the UDF in the National Assembly) – who did not agree with François Bayrou's decision to found the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and wanted to support the newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy, continuing the UDF–Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) alliance.
Image: Herve Morin (2010)
National Assembly (France)
The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate. The National Assembly's legislators are known as députés, meaning "delegate" or "envoy" in English; etymologically, it is a cognate of the English word deputy, the standard term for legislators in many parliamentary systems.
National Assembly (France)
Deputies wear tricolor sashes on official occasions outside the Assembly or on public marches, like other elected officials in France; former President of the National Assembly Bernard Accoyer is pictured here.
The Palais Bourbon in Paris, where the National Assembly meets
Ceiling paintings in the Library of the Assemblée nationale in the Palais Bourbon, on a series of cupolas and pendentives, are by Eugène Delacroix.