and National Republican Association (ANR) are merged into it. 1911: The ARD is renamed Democratic Republican Party (PRD). 1917: The ARD goes back to its original name. 1919: The ALP is merged into the FR. 1920: The ARD is further renamed Social, Democratic and Republican Party (PRDS). 1926: The ARD is finally renamed Democratic Alliance (AD). 1945: The liberal-conservative Republican Party of Liberty (PRL), successor of the FR, is founded. 1948: The liberal-conservative National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP) is founded. 1949: The declining AD and the PRL are absorbed by the CNIP. 1962: A group of splinters from the CNIP, led by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, oppose the party's decision to withdraw support to President Charles de Gaulle and, in order to continue to be part of the government, form the Independent Republicans (RI). 1974: Giscard d'Estaing is elected President of France in the presidential election. 1976: The RI are a founding member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. 1977: The RI are renamed Republican Party (PR). 1978: The PR joins forces with the Centre of Social Democrats, the Radical Party and the Social Democratic Party to form the Union for French Democracy (UDF). 1995: The Popular Party for French Democracy (PPDF) is formed by supporters of Giscard, including several Republicans, within the UDF. 1997: The PR, under the new leader Alain Madelin, is renamed Liberal Democracy (DL). 1998: The DL separates from the UDF, but a group of dissidents form the Independent Republican and Liberal Pole (PRIL) in order to remain loyal to the UDF. 2002: The DL and the PPDF merge with the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) to form the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Liberal factions within the new party include The Reformers, the "Liberal Clubs", "Liberal Generation" and the "Free Right", as well as the Radical Party (see below). 2007: The UDF is transformed into the Democratic Movement (see below). Dissidents form the New Centre (NC) and the Civic Alliance for Democracy in Europe (ACDE) to continue the alliance with the UMP. 2009: Former UDF members formed the Centrist Alliance (AC). 2012: The NC, the AC, the ACDE, Modern Left and other minor centre-right or centrist parties form the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), which aims at becoming a centrist alternative to the UMP, while being in alliance with it. Democratic European Force splits from the NC. 2014: The