The 2012 leadership election of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a political party in France was held on 18 November 2012. It renewed the leadership structures of the UMP following Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat in the 2012 presidential election and the party's defeat in the subsequent legislative election. The disputed results led to the first open crisis in the UMP since its creation in 2002.
Incumbent General Secretary Jean-François Copé defeated former Prime Minister François Fillon.
Organization While the UMP's two previous congresses in 2002 and 2004 had been held at the Bourget, there was no physical congress organized in 2012 and the congress was decentralized in each departmental federation of the UMP.
Presidency of the UMP Nicolas Sarkozy was the UMP's last president, between 2004 and 2007. Following his election to the presidency of France in 2007, the UMP modified its statutes to create a collegial presidency led by a secretary-general during the duration of his term in office. His defeat meant that the UMP needed to hold a new presidential election.
Candidates seeking to run for the party presidency needed to win the endorsements of at least 3% of party members (as of 30 June 2012), or members, from at least 10 different departmental federations. Each candidate created a "ticket" with two other party members for the offices of vice-president and secretary-general of the UMP.
Candidacies, including all endorsements, were due before 18 September 2012.
Presidential candidates Name, age Details and notes Jean-François Copé () Secretary-general of the UMP (since 2010) Mayor of Meaux (1995-2002, 2005–present) Deputy for the Seine-et-Marne's 6th constituency (2002, 2007–present) President of the UMP Group in the French National Assembly (2007-2010) Spokesperson of the Government of France (2002-2007) Junior Minister of the Budget (2004-2007) Junior Minister of the Interior (2004) Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament (2002-2004) Deputy for the Seine-et-Marne's 5th constituency (1995-1997) Candidate for Vice President: Luc Chatel (48 years old), mayor of Chaumont, deputy for Haute-Marne's 1st constituency and former cabinet minister Candidate for Secretary-General: Michèle Tabarot (49 years old), mayor of Le Cannet and deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes's 1st constituency
Deputies: Yves Albarello, Nicole Ameline, Julien Aubert, Olivier Audibert-Troin, Patrick Balkany, Jean-Pierre Barbier, Étienne Blanc, Jean-Claude Bouchet, Philippe Briand, Gilles Carrez, Yves Censi, Gérard Cherpion, Alain Chrétien, Philippe Cochet, Édouard Courtial, Olivier Dassault, Marc-Philippe Daubresse, Marie-Christine Dalloz, Bernard Deflesselles, Lucien Degauchy, Nicolas Dhuicq, Jean-Pierre Door, Georges Fenech, Marie-Louise Fort, Marc Francina, Laurent Furst, Yves Fromion, Sauveur Gandolfi-Scheit, Bernard Gérard, Claude Goasguen, Jean-Pierre Gorges, Philippe Gosselin, Henri Guaino, Christophe Guilloteau, Michel Herbillon, Guénhaël Huet, Sébastien Huyghe, Christian Jacob (president of the UMP Group), Denis Jacquat, Christian Kert, Jacques Kossowski, Patrick Labaune, Valérie Lacroute, Marc Laffineur, Marc Le Fur, Pierre Lequiller, Lionnel Luca, Jean-François Mancel, Laurent Marcangeli, Thierry Mariani, Franck Marlin, Alain Marsaud, Philippe Meunier, Pierre Morel-A-L'Huissier, Alain Moyne-Bressand, Yves Nicolin, Henri Plagnol, Jean-Frédéric Poisson, Axel Poniatowski, Josette Pons, Didier Quentin, Bernard Reynès, Franck Riester, Claudine Schmid, André Schneider, Fernand Siré, Thierry Solère, Eric Straumann, Jean-Marie Tétart, Jean-Charles Taugourdeau, Dominique Tian, Catherine Vautrin, Philippe Vitel, Marie-Jo Zimmermann
Senators: Michel Bécot, François Calvet, Jean-Claude Carle, Pierre Charon, Christian Cointat, Serge Dassault, Francis Delattre, Marie-Hélène des Esgaulx, André Dulait, Louis-Constant Fleming, Jean-Paul Fournier, Christophe-André Frassa, Pierre Frogier, Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam, Jean-Claude Gaudin (président du groupe UMP au Sénat), Bruno Gilles, Michel Houel, Jean-Jacques Hyest, Sophie Joissains, Roger Karoutchi, Marc Laménie, Jean-Louis Lorrain, Colette Mélot, Michel Magras, Philippe Marini, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (ancien Premier ministre), René-Paul Savary, Catherine Troendlé.
Members of the European Parliament: Jean-Pierre Audy, Rachida Dati, Françoise Grossetête, Brice Hortefeux,« Loyal », Hortefeux rallie Copé, Le Figaro, 21/10/2012 Philippe Juvin, Agnès Le Brun, Constance Le Grip, Franck Proust, Jean Roatta, Dominique Vlasto.
Other figures: Isabelle Balkany, Bruno Beschizza, Charles Beigbeder, Christine Boutin, Françoise Branget, Françoise Briand, Chantal Brunel, François Commeinhes, Grégoire Chertok, Geoffroy Didier,Geoffroy Didier soutient Copé, Le Figaro, 07/10/2012 Jérôme Dubus, Emmanuel Hamelin, Maryse Joissains-Masini, Brigitte Kuster, François Lebel, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, Daniel Mach, Marie-Anne Montchamp, Nadine Morano, Étienne Mourrut, Hervé Novelli, Guillaume Peltier,Guillaume Peltier : « Copé est un homme de rassemblement », Le Figaro, 06/11/2012 Éric Raoult, Marie-Josée Roig, Valérie Rosso-Debord, Jean-Marc Roubaud, Salima Saa, Jean Sarkozy,Jean Sarkozy officialise son soutien à Jean-François Copé, Le Figaro, 05/11/2012 Catherine Soullie, Olivier Stirn, Chenva Tieu, David-Xavier Weiss. François Fillon() Deputy for Paris's 2nd constituency (2012–present) Former Prime Minister (2007-2012) Deputy for the Sarthe's 4th constituency (1981-1993, 1997-2002, 2002, 2007, 2012) Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development, Transportation and Housing (2012) Senator for the Sarthe (2005-2007) Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research (2004-2005) Minister of Social Affairs, Labour and Solidarity (2002-2004) President of the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire (1998-2002) Mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe (1983-2001) President of the General Council of the Sarthe (1992-1998) Junior Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Space (1995-1997) Minister of Information Technologies and Posts (1995) Minister of Higher Education and Research (1993-1995) Candidate for Vice President: Laurent Wauquiez (37 years old), mayor of Le Puy-en-Velay, deputy for Haute-Loire's 1st constituency and former cabinet minister Candidate for Secretary-General: Valérie Pécresse (45 years old), deputy for the Yvelines's 2nd constituency and former cabinet minister
Deputies: Bernard Accoyer,Présidence de l'UMP : Accoyer vote Fillon, Le Point, 28/10/2012 Benoist Apparu,Benoist Apparu soutient François Fillon, Le Point, 27/10/2012 François Baroin, Jacques-Alain Bénisti, Xavier Bertrand,UMP : Xavier Bertrand se rallie à François Fillon, Le Figaro, 26/10/2012 Marcel Bonnot, Bruno Bourg-Broc, Valérie Boyer, Xavier Breton, Bernard Brochand, Dominique Bussereau, Jérôme Chartier, Dino Cinieri, Guillaume Chevrollier, Jean-Louis Christ, Éric Ciotti, Jean-Michel Couve, Gérald Darmanin, Bernard Debré, Rémi Delatte, Patrick Devedjian, Sophie Dion, David Douillet,UMP : Douillet n'a pas aimé les petites phrases de Copé, Le Point, 10/10/2012 Dominique Dord, Marianne Dubois, Christian Estrosi, Hervé Gaymard, Annie Genevard, Guy Geoffroy, Georges Ginesta, Charles-Ange Ginésy, Jean-Pierre Giran, Philippe Goujon, Claude Greff, Anne Grommerch, Serge Grouard, Arlette Grosskost, Françoise Guégot, Jean-Claude Guibal, Jean-Jacques Guillet, Michel Heinrich, Patrick Hetzel, Philippe Houillon, Jean-François Lamour, Thierry Lazaro, Isabelle Le Callennec, Dominique Le Mèner, Alain Leboeuf, Pierre Lellouche, Jean Léonetti, Céleste Lett, Geneviève Levy, Véronique Louwagie, Gilles Lurton, Alain Marc, Alain Marleix, Philippe Armand Martin, Alain Marty, Damien Meslot, Jean-Claude Mignon, Jacques Myard,Présidence UMP : Myard choisit Fillon, Le Figaro, 28/10/2012 Patrick Ollier, Bernard Perrut, Michel Piron, Bérengère Poletti, Christophe Priou, Frédéric Reiss, Arnaud Robinet, Camille de Rocca Serra, Sophie Rohfritsch, Paul Salen, Jean-Marie Sermier, Michel Sordi, Claude Sturni, Lionel Tardy, Guy Teissier, Michel Terrot, François Vannson, Charles de la Verpillière, Jean-Sébastien Vialatte, Jean-Pierre Vigier, Michel Voisin, Éric Woerth.
Senators: Pierre André, Gérard Bailly, Philippe Bas, Christophe Béchu, Claude Belot, Jean Bizet, Pierre Bordier, Natacha Bouchart, Joël Bourdin, Marie-Thérèse Bruguière, François-Noël Buffet, Christian Cambon Jean-Noël Cardoux, Caroline Cayeux, Gérard César, Jean-Pierre Chauveau, Marcel-Pierre Cléach, Jean-Patrick Courtois, Philippe Dallier, Isabelle Debré, Gérard Dériot, Catherine Deroche, Éric Doligé, Michel Doublet, Marie-Annick Duchêne, Louis Duvernois, Hubert Falco, Michel Fontaine, Bernard Fournier, Yann Gaillard, René Garrec, Jacques Gautier, Colette Giudicelli, Alain Gournac, Francis Grignon, François Grosdidier, Charles Guené, Pierre Hérisson, Alain Houpert, Christiane Hummel, Chantal Jouanno, Christiane Kammermann, Fabienne Keller, Élisabeth Lamure, Gérard Larcher, Daniel Laurent, Jean-René Lecerf, Jacques Legendre Dominique de Legge, Jean-Pierre Leleux, Jean-Claude Lenoir, Gérard Longuet, Roland du Luart, Alain Milon, Louis Nègre, Philippe Paul, Jackie Pierre, François Pillet, Louis Pinton, Rémy Pointereau, Christian Poncelet, Hugues Portelli, Sophie Primas, Catherine Procaccia, Henri de Raincourt, André Reichardt, Bruno Retailleau, Michel Savin, Bruno Sido, Esther Sittler, François Trucy, Jean-Pierre Vial.
Members of the European Parliament: Nora Berra, Philippe Boulland, Alain Cadec, Arnaud Danjean, Michel Dantin, Joseph Daul, Gaston Franco, Jean-Paul Gauzès, Alain Lamassoure, Véronique Mathieu, Élisabeth Morin-Chartier, Maurice Ponga, Tokia Saïfi, Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid
Others figures: Gérard d'Aboville, Martine Aurillac, Roselyne Bachelot, Pierre-Christophe Baguet, Édouard Balladur, Brigitte Barèges, Éric Berdoati, Éric Besson, Bernard Bonne, Michel Bouvard, Patrice Calméjane, Jean Castex, Joëlle Ceccaldi-Raynaud, Jean-François Chossy, Geneviève Colot, Alain Cousin, Jean-Yves Cousin, Daniel Dugléry, Catherine Dumas, Bernard Dupont, Christian Dupuy, Jean-Claude Étienne, Jean-Marie Geveaux, Danièle Giazzi, François Goulard, Claude Guéant, Françoise Hostalier, Alain Joyandet, Patrick Karam, François Kosciusko-Morizet, Marguerite Lamour, Benjamin Lancar, Henriette Martinez, Pierre Méhaignerie, Béatrice Pavy, Philippe Pemezec, Marie-Luce Penchard, Jérôme Peyrat, Étienne Pinte, Alain Pompidou, Jean-Paul Pourquier, Philippe Richert, Stéphan Rossignol, Francis Saint-Léger, Fabien de Sans-Nicolas, Jean-Pierre Schosteck, Jean-Yves Sénant, Georges Siffredi, Jean Tiberi, Claude-Annick Tissot, Marie-Hélène Thoraval, Gérard Trémège Unsuccessful presidential candidates Henri Guaino, deputy of the Yvelines's 3rd constituency, declared his candidacy on 3 September. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, mayor of Longjumeau, deputy for the Essonne's 4th constituency and former cabinet minister, announced that she had about 7000 endorsements as of 18 September and criticized the candidacy requirements. Bruno Le Maire, deputy for the Eure's 1st constituency and former cabinet minister, also claimed around 7200 endorsements on 18 September. Julien Amador, Dominique Hamdad-Vitré, Philippe Herlin and Jean-Michel Simonian,, Planète UMP, 3 September 2012 grassroots party members could never hope to win the required endorsements.
Dropped out François Baroin, mayor of Troyes, deputy for the Aube's 3rd constituency and former cabinet minister did not, ultimately, run and endorsed Fillon.Baroin "a priori" pas candidat 20minutes.fr Xavier Bertrand, mayor Saint-Quentin, deputy for the Aisne's 2nd constituency and former cabinet minister announced that he was dropping out on 16 September although he claimed 8200 endorsements. He claimed he was dropping out to run in the 2016 primaries which will nominate the party's candidate in the 2017 presidential election.