Union, Progress and Democracy

Union, Progress and Democracy Unión, Progreso y Democracia
Spokesperson	Rosa Díez
Founded	26 September 2007 (2007-09-26)
Headquarters	C/ Cedaceros, 11, 2º H, 28014, Madrid
Think tank	Progress and Democracy Foundation
Membership	6,165 (2013)
Ideology	Progressivism Social liberalism Secularism Reformism Radical centrism Radicalism Centralism Constitutionalism European federalism Spanish nationalism
Political position	Centre
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (Observer)
European Parliament group	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	None
Colours	Magenta
Congress of Deputies	5 / 350
Spanish Senate	0 / 266
Regional Parliaments	10 / 1,268
European Parliament	4 / 54
Local Government (2011)	152 / 68,286
Website
www.upyd.es
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

Union, Progress and Democracy (Spanish: Unión, Progreso y Democracia [uˈnjon pɾoˈɣɾeso i ðemoˈkɾaθja], official abbreviation UPyD [upeiˈðe], occasionally referred to as UPD [upeˈðe]) is a Spanish political party founded in September 2007.

It is a social liberal party that rejects peripheral nationalism in all its forms including the separatist Basque and Catalan movements. It proposes substituting the current electoral law for a more proportional one. The party also wants a federal system for Europe, without duplicities between the functions of the European government, the national one and the regional one. Mikel Buesa at a party's presentation in 2007 and Irene Lozano in a television interview in 2013 have explained the meaning of the 3 concepts which make up party's name: Union because of their unconditional defence of "the unity of Spain", Progress because they affirm to be "a progressive party, respectful of individual freedom" and Democracy because they declare themselves "radical democrats".

UPyD first stood for election in the 2008 general election, held on 9 March. It received 303,246 votes, or 1.2% of the national total, and one seat in the Congress of Deputies for party co-founder Rosa Díez, becoming the newest party with national representation in Spain.

UPyD's core is in the Basque Autonomous Community, with roots in anti-ETA civic associations, yet it addresses a Spain-wide audience. Prominent members of the party include philosopher Fernando Savater, party founder and former PSOE MEP Rosa Díez, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, and writer Álvaro Pombo.

At its Second Party Congress in November 2013, UPyD reported 6165 registered members, down from an all-time high of 6634 in 2011. In 2009, UPyD founded the think tank "Fundación Progreso y Democracia" (FPyD: Progress and Democracy Foundation) which has since been presided over by the party's spokesperson, Rosa Díez.

In the most recent general elections, held on 20 November 2011, the party won 1,143,225 votes (4.70%), winning five seats in the Congress of Deputies (four in Madrid and one in Valencia) and becoming the fourth largest political force in the country. It was also the party that experienced the greatest increase of votes compared to the previous general election.

Origins

Álvaro Pombo (left) with Fernando Savater at a meeting of Union, Progress and Democracy.

On 19 May 2007, 45 people met in San Sebastián to debate the necessity and possibility of creating a new political party that would oppose both the main parties at national level, the People's Party (PP) and the PSOE. At the meeting, most of those present were Basques, many of whom had long experience in political, union, and civic organizations, in many cases coming from a background of left-wing politics, but also from liberal and civic backgrounds. After that meeting, in order to create a broadly based social and political project, the first step was to create an association, Plataforma Pro, which united those who considered it necessary to form a new political party at national level, whose aim would be to put forward new political proposals of interest to people from across the democratic political spectrum. The initial motives established were:

• The fight against ETA and any type of politically motivated violence.
• Regeneration of Spanish democracy.
• Opposition to "obligatory nationalism".
• The reform of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to reinforce civil liberties and equality, independent of the regional origins of each citizen.

Among the members or supporters of Plataforma Pro were the philosopher Fernando Savater, the spokesman of ¡Basta Ya!, Carlos Martínez Gorriarán (who was the coordinator of the same group), and the former PSOE MEP Rosa Díez. Díez later resigned from PSOE membership and her position as MEP in August 2007 in order to become involved with the UPyD project.

Other groups that showed their support for the Platform included the association Citizens of Catalonia, most notably Albert Boadella, Arcadi Espada, and Xavier Pericay, as well as the association ¡Basta Ya!, which had been a major influence on the new movement.

Teresa Giménez Barbat, member of Council of UPyD in Catalonia and president of Citizens of Catalonia.

In September 2007, the then-president of the Forum Ermua, Mikel Buesa, announced their intention to participate in the political party arising from the Plataforma Pro (later on, he resigned in 2009 due to disagreements with Rosa Díez).

Finally, at a public meeting on 29 September 2007, in the Auditorium of the Casa de Campo in Madrid, the new party, Union, Progress and Democracy, was formed. Those involved in the formation of the new party included the Catalan dramatist Albert Boadella, the Basque philosopher Fernando Savater, the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, and Rosa Díez. Also present were journalist Arcadi Espada, anthropologists Teresa Giménez Barbat and Felix Perez Romera (three prominent members of Citizens of Catalonia), historian Antonio Elorza, painter Agustín Ibarrola, the ex-leader of the Forum Ermua Mikel Buesa, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, the deputies of Citizens Albert Rivera and Antonio Robles, Peruvian writer Fernando Iwasaki, former Secretary General of the UGT Nicolas Redondo, and Basque MP of the People's Party Fernando Maura. Maura subsequently joined the new grouping on 6 November 2007, as a member of its advisory council. Later on, writer Álvaro Pombo also expressed support for UPyD, and went on to run as a candidate for the party.

Ideology

Ideologically, UPyD is not defined by itself as either left or right and in its electoral mass there are collected Socialist Party's disenchanted voters as well as voters with an affinity for the political right.

Rosa Díez in a party meeting.

When UPyD is asked to be placed on the political spectrum, it simply defines itself as a "progressive party" and is simultaneously included in the called "transversalism": it's a party which embraces concepts and ideas of both political axes. According to its spokesperson Rosa Díez, the party is "progressive and cross-sectional", "it's got leftist people and right-wing, liberal people". Álvaro Anchuelo also commented that UPyD is a "monarchist party insofar as the monarchy fulfils its function". They assert as additional identity signs "constitutionalism", defining it as the upholding of the Spanish state of law under the Spanish Constitution of 1978; "secularism", as the defence of a neutral State with beliefs, in which any religious confession isn't privileged over others; "Spanish patriotism", as the defence of common values: justice, freedom and equality; "liberal democracy", as the form of government that best attunes wielding of power to safeguard of individual rights; and "postnationalism", as the opposition to peripheral nationalists and pro-independence parties of the Spanish political system. Rosa Díez defines UPyD in opposition to this kind of parties as "an unequivocally national party, with a unique project for Spain". Besides, she has pointed out that UPyD is "a radical party which wants to transform politics by bringing off substantial, in-depth changes from within the institutions". Lastly, Rosa Díez has detailed that there are two ideological trends, which exist side by side in harmony, inside UPyD: "political liberalism" and "social democracy" and that, as the party combines elements of both political trends, the political doctrine that would best define UPyD is "social liberalism". UPyD has been rated by the vast majority of political scientists and media such as the European Social Survey or the British newspapers Financial Times and The Economist as a centre party. UPyD has exceptionally been located on the centre-left (for example, by Navarra confidencial) and on the centre-right (by the Encyclopædia Britannica), though.

Its key proposals, according to its terminology, are:

1. Reform of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, focusing on three areas:
   • Doing away with the autonomic Spanish model. UPyD wants Spain to adopt a system of symmetric federalism with a wide political centralization as territorial model, clearly defining which competences are unique of the State and which ones are delegated to the autonomous communities or municipalities. The party wants to centralize the competences that concern about citizens' fundamental rights like education, health and justice among others because it considers that the State of Autonomies is "elephantine", "politically unviable" and "economically unsustainable" and, above all, because it creates inequalities across the whole country. Another aspect of UPyD's symmetric federalism is the abolition of Navarra's and the Basque Country's chartered regimes, together with all historical rights, setting a common system of funding for all autonomous communities.
   • Improvement and reinforcement of individual rights and obligations, strictly defining the same for all Spanish citizens, without territorial, linguistic, ideological or religious inequalities. "The unity of Spain" would be "the only instrument to ensure the equality of the whole of the Spanish citizenry".
   • Deepening of the separation of powers, widening the autonomy of the judicial power from the executive and legislature ones, thereby consolidating the judiciary unity in the country and trying to ensure the independence of the Constitutional Court, the Court of Accounts and regulatory organs with an economic nature from the executive power.
2. Making Spain into a secular state, it backs a revision of the existing concordats with the Holy See, the self-financing of the Catholic Church and other religious denominations and the total separation between church and state. UPyD only assures of its respect for "those religions which are compatible with human rights and the state of law", so the party despises Islam because of "women's stoning" or "homosexuals' murder". Accordingly, UPyD has supported the banning of Muslim headscarves (burqa and hijab) in all public spaces because it considers that "they're one women's subjugation form to men within the Islamic religion".
3. Reform of the electoral Law in order to try to achieve each voter's equality regardless of his residence place and, therefore, to increase minority parties' representation, which are underrepresented with today's electoral system compared with those which represent most Spanish citizens (PP and PSOE). In 2008, Rosa Díez submitted a bill related to amend the Organic Act of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) in the Congress of Deputies, which entailed increasing the MPs number from 350 to 400. From the total of 400 MPs, 1 would be elected per autonomous community and 1 per autonomous city, for a total of 52. Another 146 would be elected by autonomous communities, distributed in proportion to the population thereof. The remaining 200 parliamentary members would be elected in a single national character constituency. Furthermore, it proposed the elimination of the requirement to collect 0.1% of the constituencies' electorate that nowadays the extra-parliamentary parties need to run for. Later, UPyD added Hare quota as replacement for D'Hondt method.
4. Improvements in public education, promoting secularism and scientific investigation as well as eradicating language discrimination and ensuring the language choice freedom of all non-linguistic subjects at the autonomous communities which have got a co-official language whereas guaranteeing the bilingualism by being compulsory to learn the Spanish language and regional one through their corresponding subject of "Language and Literature". Apart from in education, they reject the language discrimination dealing with the Administration and in all public services.
5. Changes in the democratic system: the possibility of introducing an open electoral list system, the direct election of those who will hold relevant personal offices (regional presidencies and mayoralties) in a two-round system, setting term limits on elected officeholders, and making the holding of public offices incompatible with private businesses. Moreover, the party suggests measures preventing post-electoral pacts and making more transparent political parties' funding and therefore improving their independence from great economic powers.
6. Proceedings to tackle terrorism that put the emphasis on defeating ETA or any other terrorist organization, pursuing its funding channels and censoring its political justification. Consequently, UPyD wants to toughen the law of parties to outlaw the political groups Amaiur, Bildu, EH Bildu and Sortu because it considers they're ETA's political arm. It puts forward that they don't condemn ETA's terrorism and even justify it, for example, when they call imprisoned ETA's members "jailed politicians".
7. Economic and social measures promoting the Spanish economy development and correcting inequalities. According to its view, the State should improve workers' education, training and safety, bring about the internal market integration through infrastructures, favour the research and innovation in businesses and guarantee the economic freedom and competition.
8. Higher immigration control: UPyD argues that the Spanish borders of Ceuta and Melilla have to be protected but dealing with sensitivity and humanity illegal immigrants. The party believes that the Civil Guard should stop illegal immigrants and legally deport them to their origin countries or to the country from which they entered, without violating the human rights of thereof. So, it's against the use of razor wires and shooting rubber bullets as deterrents. It also asks the European Union for a European action protocol to bring illegal immigration to a halt because it affects the whole of Europe. Thus, it wants the European Commission to include Ceuta and Melilla at the European customs area so that the European Union can get definitely involved in the administration of European external borders in both cities. As regards Europe, UPyD would like to strengthen the European Union's territorial integration.
9. Environmental policy measures that make the technological and economic development compatible with the environment and biodiversity protection. Some examples of these measures are: the use of nuclear energy as an important part of the energy mix, which together with renewable energies, Spain should have, the usage of the hydraulic fracturing, the opposition to the coastline and sensitive natural areas destruction by urbanization or other abusive misuses, the scientific research of climate change and its possible corrective measures and the improvement of the legislature on the natural areas protection.
10. Regarding abortion, UPyD would bet for a Limits Law, it proposes to decriminalize induced abortion until a fourteen-week provisional period in which any woman can freely abort. The definitive limit would be established by a medical and scientific consensus based on the early detection of possible malformations. Beyond that period, UPyD only defends abortion in mother's death risk cases with the aim of conciliate the mother's right to a consenting maternity with the unborn person's juridical protection. However, from party's point of view, abortion is always "a drama" and, hence, mustn't be considered a positive right. Therefore, it believes that secondary education has to tackle this issue at sex education area since an early age, thereby informing students of all existing contraceptives methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies and fostering the notion that abortion should be avoided as much as possible.

Funding

Shortly before the party's creation, on 13 December 2007 UPyD held a press conference headed by Rosa Díez, Mikel Buesa, and Fernando Savater in which it denounced "evidently unequal" treatment it received on the part of Spanish banks, which had denied the UPyD loans and recalled the debts of the other political parties with the banks, in addition to the great pardons made to these groups in the last few years. In this context, they explained, UPyD's activity was currently being funded thanks to membership fees and small donations, but they recognized that the party "could not continue this way" nor contest an election with such resources. For that reason, the leadership decided to start a funding system of personal loans, in the hope that citizens would commit themselves. This system consisted of selling personal loans to the value of 200, 500, and 1000 euros to fund the party's electoral campaign for the 2008 general elections after the refusal of financial institutions to bankroll the party. These bonds, which were to be issued to the total of somewhere between three to five million euros, could be purchased in the party offices, via the Internet, and via a free phone number. In addition, the party stated they would report the amount of the loans obtained and the state of its accounts. The party intends to return the money to citizens after the elections, thanks to the institutional funding received by parties with parliamentary representation.

Elections

Luis de Velasco Rami, Rosa Díez and David Ortega

Shortly after the party's foundation, the party's national spokesperson, Rosa Díez, won a seat in the general election of 2008. She was elected in Madrid Province with 3.74% of the vote. Other prominent candidates were the writer Álvaro Pombo for the Senate and Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, both of whom failed to win seats.

In 2009, the party gained representation in two other elections, the European Parliamentary election, and the Basque Regional Elections. Their MEP, Francisco Sosa Wagner, sat in the non-aligned group in the European parliament. In the Basque elections, Gorka Maneiro was elected to represent Álava.

In 2011, Luis de Velasco Rami and 7 other UPyD members were elected to the Madrid Assembly, with UPyD becoming the fourth largest party. In the 2011 local elections, the party won seats in cities such as Madrid, Burgos, Ávila, Granada, Alicante and Murcia.

In the 2011 general election, UPyD received the fourth largest number of votes, polling 1,143,225 (4.70%). Of the five seats the party won, four of them were in Madrid, won by Rosa Díez, Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, Álvaro Anchuelo and Irene Lozano. Another candidate was elected in Valencia Province, the actor Toni Cantó.

In the 2014 European Parliament Elections Francisco Sosa Wagner was reelected and UPyD won three extra seats for Maite Pagazaurtundua, Fernando Maura and Beatriz Becerra, consolidating their support in all Spain. The party's MEPs are set to join the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group.

Criticism

In July 2009, party co-founder Mikel Buesa announced his resignation from UPyD denouncing the "authoritarian control" he claimed a group of persons in the party had attempted to impose. Following the First Party Congress in November 2009, one hundred UPyD critics (among whom were four founders) left the party. They felt "tired and disappointed" with the "authoritarian" Rosa Díez and "lack of internal democracy". By early 2010 the party had lost 40% of its membership in Catalonia, considering the political party to be a fraud.

Election results

Congress of Deputies

Congress of Deputies
Date	Votes			Seats		Position	Size	Notes
	#	%	± pp	#	±
2008	306,079	1.2%		1 / 350		Opposition	6th
2011	1,143,225	4.7%	3.5	5 / 350	4	Opposition	4th

European Parliament

European Parliament
Date	Votes			Seats		Size
	#	%	± pp	#	±
2009	451,866	2.9%		1 / 54		5th
2014	1,022,232	6.5%	3.6	4 / 54	3	5th

Local councils

Local councils
Date	Votes			Seats		Size
	#	%	± pp	#	±
2011	464,824	2.1%		152 / 68,230		5th

See also

Citizens – Party of the Citizenry (C's)

Bibliography

• Dorange, Monica (2013), Civilisation espagnole et hispano-américaine (in Spanish), Hachette Éducation, 400, ISBN 978-2-01-140215-8
• Vidal, César; Jiménez Losantos, Federico (2012), La libertad tiene un precio (in Spanish), PLAZA & JANES EDITORES, 416, ISBN 978-84-01-34661-3
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• Magone, José María (2009), Contemporary Spanish Politics, Taylor & Francis, 490, ISBN 978-0-415-42188-1
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• Martínez Gorriarán, Carlos (2008), Movimientos cívicos. De la calle al Parlamento (in Spanish), Ediciones Turpial, S.A, 228, ISBN 978-84-95157-26-3
• Díez González, Rosa (2008), Merece la Pena: Una Vida Dedicada a la Política (in Spanish), Editorial Planeta, 307, ISBN 978-84-08-07700-8

External links

• Unión, Progreso y Democracia – Official homepage (Spanish)