Union Nationale Interuniversitaire (UNI) or "Inter-University Union" is the largest Frenchright union ofuniversity students, created in February 1969 to promote freedom of expression in reaction to the studentcrisis of May 68 and to support the political action ofGeneral de Gaulle.
The UNI was founded in order to expand the conservative and the right-wing influence in the French university after theMay 1968 events. It was created under the initiative of theService d'Action Civique, a secret service used by the right-winggaullist movement, in particular byRobert Pandraud,Charles Pasqua andJacques Foccart; the Service d'Action Civique was dissolved in 1982 by the socialist government.
The Inter-University Union has always been strongly anti-communist and anti-socialist opposing the numerous left-wing student groups that exist in the French universities. Since its foundation, the UNI claims to be a movement of activists, activism being the main mission of the organization along with the participation to the elections of the students' representatives within the French universities. The union also uses to position itself within the national political debate strongly opposing communism,affirmative action andcannabis legalization.
It received $575,000 between April 1984 and April 1985 from the government of the United States through theNational Endowment for Democracy and was also supported byIrving Brown, leader of the international relations of theAFL–CIO and aCIA contractee.[1]
Starting from 1995, UNI has supportedpresidentJacques Chirac against theFrench Socialist Party. Its anti-socialist position pushed theUNI to get closer to theRPR and now to theUMP, the main French right-wing party. Some of its members also belong to theMovement for France, a more traditionalist conservative political party.UNI activists often participate toUMP rallies even though the two organizations do remain independent.
During the2005 French European Constitution referendum, the union was strongly divided betweeneurosceptic and pro-European activists. The UNI leaders finally decided to support theEuropean Constitution, while a big part of the union's activists campaigned against it. This event pushed some members out of the union, leading to the creation of a new right-wing student union, more nationalist and traditionalist, theRassemblement des Etudiants de Droite (Rally of the Right-wing Students). In the2007 French Presidential election, the UNI has strongly supported the conservative candidateNicolas Sarkozy even though some of its members preferred campaigning for the catholic traditionalist, eurosceptic and anti-immigration candidate,Philippe de Villiers.
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