Bayrou, a center-right candidate running under the UDF banner, failed to advance to the second (final) round. In 2002, they earned 6.84% of the first-round vote, a fourth-place finish while the neo-Gaullist right-wing (RPR) and extreme-right (National Front, FN) candidates Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen, respectively, advanced. Along with much of the political establishment, Bayrou threw his support behind Chirac. In 2007, it was 18.57% (Nicolas Sarkozy, a right-wing candidate then running with the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and Socialist Party (PS) candidate Ségolène Royal advanced) and 9.13% in 2012 (Sarkozy and PS candidate François Hollande advanced). The 2007 election loss nevertheless marked a significant turning point, as Bayrou announced publicly he would not vote for Sarkozy, breaking from the dominant right-wing UMP to form the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem). De Sarnez became its First Vice-President. The UMP's successor the Republicans (LR) blamed Bayrou (and retaliated) for Sarkozy's loss and a number of UDF members split to create the New Centre party to support Sarkozy, leaving only three MoDem deputies in the National Assembly, including Bayrou, not enough to form their own group in the legislature. Ex-comrades accused de Sarnez of having creating a vacuum around Bayrou. A 2007 profile in Le Monde describes de Sarnez's role with Bayrou: "Nothing is done without her consent." In the 2016 presidential primary held by LR, de Sarnez endorsed Alain Juppé over Sarkozy, but both lost in a surprise upset by François Fillon. Bayrou, in consultation with de Sarnez, decided not to run in the 2017 French presidential election and they both instead supported Emmanuel Macron of La République En Marche! as an alternative centrist candidate, ultimately successful. Role in Europe While de Sarnez made her name as "the woman who made Bayrou", he also encouraged her to strike out as a candidate herself, insisting, "She's not a number two. She's a number one." Devoted to the cause of a unified Europe, she began her elected career in 1999 as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Île-de-France, heading the UDF list in 2004 and serving until 2017. A member of the UDF before 2008 and MoDem after 2008, de Sarnez served as vice-chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education. She was in the forefront for Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and it inspired the choice