The MRP benefited from the absence of real right-wing challengers to rally the conservative electorate. Indeed, among the three largest parties, it was the only one that was not Marxist. Furthermore, it appeared the closest to de Gaulle. It supported the reforms decided by the provisional government and inspired by the programme of the National Council of Resistance written during the war: nationalisation of banks and industrial companies such as Renault, and the creation of a welfare state. Georges Bidault remarked that the MRP was governing "in the centre with right-wing methods to attain left-wing ends" or that it was "pursuing left-wing policies with a right-wing electorate" "(une politique de gauche, avec un électorat de droite)".