 The party was created on 29 March 1967 during the sixth Knesset when Shmuel Tamir led a breakaway of three Herut members (the other two being Eliezer Shostak and Avraham Tiar) after a leadership dispute with Menachem Begin.Before the next election they were joined by Shlomo Cohen-Tzidon who had also left Gahal and failed in an attempt to create a one-man parliamentary group named the "Popular Faction".In the 1969 elections the Free Centre only just passed the electoral threshold of 1%, claiming 1.2% of the vote and 2 seats, which were taken by Tamir and Shostak.