National Centre of Independents and Peasants

National Centre of Independents and Peasants, French political party founded in 1949. It grew out of the National Centre of Independents, formed in 1948 by Roger Duchet, who, by the following year, had accomplished a coalition of various parliamentarians of the right and had absorbed the small peasant party, the Republican Party of Liberty (Parti Républicain de la Liberté); the new grouping became the CNIP. Thereafter it took part in various governments. Antoine Pinay, a member, was premier in 1952, and René Coty, another member, was president of France, 1952–59.

Although it supported the creation of Charles de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic, the CNIP was divided over his Algerian policy; eventually those who supported de Gaulle (including Valéry Giscard d’Estaing) formed a new group, the Independent Republicans (Républicains Indépendants). After this split in 1962, the CNIP declined in influence and did not fully rise again, though over the years it retained some seats and was represented in successive conservative governments.