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People's Party (Spain)

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People's Party
LeaderMariano Rajoy
FoundedOctober 9, 1976 (AP)
January 20, 1989 (PP)
HeadquartersC/ Genova 13 Madrid
IdeologyCentrism[1], Christian Democracy, Conservatism, Liberalism
European affiliationEuropean People's Party
International affiliationCentrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union, Christian Democrat International
ColoursBlue, Orange (latest elections)
Website
Official site

The People's Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, PP) is the main liberal-conservative (center-right) political party in Spain.

The People's Party was a refoundation of the Popular Alliance (Spanish: Alianza Popular, AP), a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former government minister under Francisco Franco. The new party combined the conservative AP with several small Christian-democratic and liberal parties. In 2002 Manuel Fraga received the honorary title of "Founding President".

PP is currently the largest opposition party in the Congress of Deputies, with 148 out of 350 deputies, and the largest party represented in the Senate (second chamber), with 126 out of 259 senators. Its youth organization is New Generations of the People’s Party of Spain (NNGG).

The PP is a member of the Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union, the Christian Democrat International and the European People's Party (EPP). In the European Parliament its 24 MEPs sit with the EPP-ED Group.

Early beginnings

File:Fraga, as president of AP.jpg
Manuel Fraga, as president of the People's Alliance

The Popular Alliance was founded in October 9, 1976 by Manuel Fraga who had served as a government minister under Franco and who had expected to play a key role in post-Franco governments. He underestimated the popular desire for change and distaste for Francoism, and he advocated an extremely gradual transition to democracy. Although Fraga had originally intended to convey a reformist image, his party was perceived by the electorate as both reactionary and authoritarian. When elections were held in June 1977, the AP garnered only 8.3 percent of the vote.

In the months following the 1977 elections, dissension erupted within the AP over constitutional issues that arose as the draft document was being formulated. Fraga wanted to move the AP toward the political centre in order to form a larger centre-right party. Most of the disenchanted reactionaries left the AP, and Fraga and the remaining AP members joined other more moderately conservative party leaders to form the Democratic Coalition (Coalición Democratica, CD). It was hoped that this new coalition would capture the support of those who had voted for the Democratic Centre Union (UCD) in 1977, but who had become disenchanted with the Adolfo Suárez government. When elections were held in March 1979, however, the CD received only 6.1 percent of the vote.

Consolidation

Headquarter of People´s Party in Génova Street, Madrid

The AP's Third Party Congress in December 1979, party leaders were reassessing their involvement in the CD. Many felt that the creation of the coalition had merely confused the voters, and they sought to emphasize the AP's independent identity. Fraga resumed control of the party, and the political resolutions adopted by the party congress reaffirmed the conservative orientation of the AP.

In the early 1980s, Fraga succeeded in rallying the various components of the right around his leadership. He was aided in his efforts to revive the AP by the increasing disintegration of the UCD. In the general elections held in October 1982, the AP gained votes both from previous UCD supporters and from the far right, and it became the major opposition party, securing 25.4 percent of the popular vote. Whereas the AP's parliamentary representation had dropped to 9 seats in 1979, the party allied itself with the small christian-democratic Democratic Popular Party (PDP) and won 106 seats in 1982. The increased strength of the AP was further evidenced in the municipal and regional elections held in May 1983, when the party drew 26 percent of the vote. A significant portion of the electorate appeared to support the AP's emphasis on law and order as well as its probusiness policies.

Subsequent political developments belied the party's aspirations to continue increasing its base of support. Prior to the June 1986 elections, the AP once again joined forces with the PDP and with the Liberal Party (PL), formed the Popular Coalition (Coalición Popular, CP), in another attempt to expand its constituency to include the centre of the political spectrum. The coalition called for stronger measures against terrorism, for more privatization, and for a reduction in spending and in taxes. The CP failed to increase its share of the vote in the 1986 elections, however, and it soon began to disintegrate.

When regional elections in late 1986 resulted in further losses for the coalition, Fraga resigned as AP president, although he retained his parliamentary seat. At the party congress in February 1987, Antonio Hernández Mancha was chosen to head the AP, declaring that under his leadership the AP would become a "modern right-wing European party." But Hernández Mancha lacked political experience at the national level, and the party continued to decline. When support for the AP plummeted in the municipal and regional elections held in June 1987, it was clear that it would be overtaken as major opposition party by Suarez's Democratic and Social Centre (CDS).

After the resignation of Manuel Fraga, and the successive victories of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in the general elections of 1982 and 1986, Popular Alliance entered a deep crisis. Fraga then took the reins and, at the Congress of January of 1989, the CP was reestablished as a single party, the People's Party, that carried the characteristics of AP. Fraga was the first president of the party, with Francisco Álvarez Cascos as the secretary general.


Aznar Years (1989-2004)

José Maria Aznar
Main article: José María Aznar

On 4 September 1989, José María Aznar (then president of Autonomous Region of Castile and León) was elected candidate for Spanish president to the general elections, at the suggestion of Fraga himself. In April of 1990, Aznar became president of the party. Fraga would later be named President-Founder of the People's Party

The PP was the governing party from 1996 to 2004, led by President (Presidente del Gobierno) José María Aznar. The PP won the general elections for the first time in 1996, and José María Aznar became president of the Government with the support of the Basque Nationalist Party, the Catalan CiU party and the Canary Coalition.

ETA declared a truce from September of 1998 until December of 1999, in which the popular Government regrouped 135 prisoners of the organization and held fruitless negotiations with ETA, after which it began a severe antiterrorism policy of harassing ETA and its environment in all possible political, legal, social and international ways.

In January of 1999, Álvarez Cascos abandoned the office of general secretary of the party in favor of Javier Arenas.

In August 2003, Mariano Rajoy was appointed Secretary General by Aznar and, therefore, became the party's candidate for the presidency in the Spanish general election, 2004, held three days after the terrorist March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, and which Rajoy lost in a close election to socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Opposition Party (2004-present)

Mariano Rajoy during a speech in Bilbao

The PP under Mariano Rajoy has opposed the PSOE government since PP lost the elections in 2004, arguing that this victory was influenced by the March 11 Madrid bombings. At a national level, its political strategy has followed two main axis, both linked to Spain's delicate regional politics. Firstly, opposing further administrative devolution to Catalonia by means of the newly-approved "Estatuto" or Statute stating the powers of the Catalonian government. [citation needed]. Secondly, the opposition to political negotiations with the Basque terrorist organisation ETA.

The Partido Popular has supported the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) with respect to the Government's actions concerning ETA's ceasefire, and was capable in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of citizens in demonstrations against Government policies that, in its opinion, would result in political concessions to ETA. Nevertheless, the end of the ceasefire in December 2006 finished the prospects for government negotiations with ETA. Since then, the PP's opposition to the government in matters of terrorism has become somewhat less stringent.

The prospect of increased demands for autonomy in the programmes of Catalan and Basque parties and Zapatero's alleged favouring of them is becoming a focus for the party's campaign for the General Elections in March 2008. Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe's recent proposal for a unilateral referendum for the solution of the Basque Conflict may become an important issue.

The Partido Popular under Rajoy has an increasingly patriotic, or nationalist, element to it, appealing to the sense of "Spanishness" and making strong use of national symbols such as the Spanish flag. Prior to the national celebrations to the Spanish Heritage Day, Rajoy made a speech asking Spaniards to "privately or publicly" display their pride in their nation and to honour their flag, an action which received some criticism from many political groups of the Congress.

PP demonstration in 2007 in opposition to releasing an ETA member from prison

Notable members

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]



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