In 2012, the Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire — UMP) celebrated its tenth anniversary. The movement was formed in 2002 as the latest attempt to unite the diverse families and groups on the French centre and right. In the summer of 2012, after Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election, the UMP appeared to be rediscovering the energy of its early years, when it had freely experimented with new forms of internal democracy, encouraged ideological pluralism and accommodated party factionalism. Since Sarkozy’s defeat, UMP leaders have agreed on the need to copy the Socialist Party (PS) by introducing open primaries for the 2017 UMP presidential nomination. While awaiting this longer term challenge, UMP party managers and activists were primarily mobilized by the selection of a new leader, planned in November 2012. For the first time in the history of the party, the competition for the leadership was genuinely open and strongly contested. Jean-François Copé, the then general secretary (secrétaire général), was running for his re-election; François Fillon, the former prime minister, was challenging him. The party was thus confronted with the logic of a contest between an externally popular politician and an organizational strongman.