Union for the New Republic
The Union for the New Republic (, UNR), was a French political party founded on 1 October 1958 that supported Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle in the 1958 elections. History. The UNR won 206 of 579 seats in the November 1958 elections. In 1962, the UNR grouped with the Gaullist Democratic Union of Labour (French: "Union démocratique du travail, UDT") to form the UNR-UDT. They won 233 seats out of 482, slightly less than an absolute majority. 35 Independent Republicans boosted their support. In 1967, UNR candidates ran under the title Union of Democrats for  the Fifth Republic ("Union des démocrates pour la V République, UD-V"), winning 200 out of 486 seats. The UNR was renamed Union for the Defense of the Republic in 1967, and later Union of Democrats for the Republic in 1971. UNR in the Senate. Under the Fifth Republic, 39 senators were affiliated to the UNR Group and 11 of them were Muslims or with Muslim origins. Maurice Bayrou was the leader of the group in the Senate from October 1962 to October 1965.