The Citizenship, Action, Participation for the 21st Century (French: Citoyenneté Action Participation pour le 21ème siècle) is a minor green liberal political party in France, founded by Corinne Lepage in 1996 as a political reflection club.
It evolved into a political party by year 2000. Lepage was the party's candidate in the 2002 presidential election and obtained 1.88% of the votes. Lepage claimed to stand for an independent and centrist green voice, as opposed to Noël Mamère, who was the candidate of the Green Party, which is close to the left. The party later refused to join the new centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
In 2007, after dropping out of the presidential race, Lepage endorsed François Bayrou's centrist candidacy and CAP21 ran around 20 candidates with Bayrou's new Democratic Movement, in the subsequent legislative election. It failed to elect any deputy.
CAP 21 became an associate party of Bayrou's MoDem on June 15, 2008. Corinne Lepage became a high-ranking member of the MoDem's leadership, serving as a Vice President. In the 2009 European elections, Corinne Lepage was elected Member of the European Parliament for North-West France as the MoDem's top candidate in the region.
However, the party took its independence vis-a-vis of the MoDem in the runup to the 2010 regional elections where it wished a close alliance with Europe Ecologie. In six regions, Cap 21 allied with and was allied with the MoDem in Bourgogne and Picardie. Following the MoDem's poor result (4.2%) in the regional elections, Lepage announced her resignation from the MoDem and announced that she would propose at the party's next congress full autonomy vis-a-vis the MoDem.
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)