The Front’s scant number of elected officials reflects the strategy pursued by its two main adversaries, the Socialist Party and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP, formerly the Gaullist party), which have essentially shared all elected posts at the national and local level since the 1980’s. In order to preserve their shared domination, they have more or less agreed to a “Republican Front” strategy aimed at excluding the National Front in the second round of all elections.