Republican Party of Liberty

The Republican Party of Liberty (French: "Parti républicain de la liberté", PRL) was a right-of-center French political party created at the Liberation and absorbed by the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNI) in 1951. It was founded on 22 December 1945 by Joseph Laniel, André Mutter, Édouard Frédéric-Dupont and Jules Ramarony.

The PRL's aim was to gather the French conservatives, totally discredited after World War II due to the importance of Collaborators in their ranks and their role during the interwar period. Bernard Frank mocked "this right which suddenly discovered itself a love for the Republic and liberty." The PRL's tentative failed, most conservative leaders trying to conserve their autonomy or to recreate parties of the Third Republic such as the Democratic Alliance, the Republican Federation or the "Parti de la Réconciliation Française" (Parti of French Reconciliation).

The PRL campaigned for the "NO" to the 1946 referendum on the Constitution. It obtained 38 deputies at the 1946 legislative elections. The party was presided by Michel Clemenceau, who obtained 60 voices on 883 during the 1947 presidential election — under the Fourth Republic, the President was elected by great electors, not by universal suffrage.

The PRL then obtained 11 deputies at the elections for the Conseil de la République (Council of the Republic) of 1948. After numerous internal dissensions, the PRL merged into the CNI in 1951.

Members

*Michel Clemenceau, President.
*Robert Bertolaud
*Édouard Barrachin
*Henry Bergasse
*Robert Bruyneel
*Jean Crouzier
*Édouard Frédéric-Dupont
*Henri Giraud
*Pierre July
*Joseph Laniel
*Joseph Lecacheux
*Jean Legendre
*Pierre Montel
*André Mutter
*Jules Ramarony