People's Party (Spain)
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| Partido Popular | |
|---|---|
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| Leader | Mariano Rajoy |
| Founded | 1976 (AP) 1989 (PP) |
| Headquarters | Madrid |
| Political ideology | Conservatism, Liberal conservatism, Christian Democracy, Conservative liberalism |
| International affiliation | International Democrat Union and Christian Democrat International |
| Website | Official site |
The People's Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, PP) is the largest centre-right political party in Spain.
The People's Party was a refoundation of the Popular Alliance (Alianza Popular, AP), a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Laureano López Rodo, Federico Silva Muñoz, Licinio De La Fuente y De La Fuente, Cruz Martínez Esteruelas, Gonzalo Fernandez De La Mora, all of them ex-ministers from different Franco's dictatorial governments, and Enrique Thomas De Carranza
PP gathered the conservative AP and several small Christian-Democratic and liberal parties. Manuel Fraga received the honorary title of "Founding President" and retired from the national spotlight to Galician politics.
PP is a member of both the International Democrat Union and the Christian Democrat International.
The PP is now the largest opposition party in the Congress of Deputies, with 148 out of 350 deputies, and is only 4 seats short of a majority in the Senate, with 126 out of 259 senators.
In the European Parliament it sits with the European People's Party, holding 24 MEPs of the 54 attributed to Spain.
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[edit] Early beginnings
The Popular Alliance was a conservative right-wing party founded in October 9, 1976 by former ministers of Francisco Franco's government. The AP was under the leadership of Manuel Fraga who had helped to prepare the way for reform during the Franco era 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. Fraga's own outbursts of temper and the close ties of many of the AP candidates to the previous regime contributed to this perception. 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. The more reactionary members voted against the draft constitution, and they advocated a shift to the right. Fraga, however, 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 Suárez government. When elections were held in March 1979, however, the CD received only 6.1 percent of the vote. Deeply disappointed, Fraga resigned as head of his party.
[edit] Consolidation
By the time of 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, Hernandez was chosen to head the AP, declaring that under his leadership the AP would become a "modern right-wing European party." But Hernandez 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).
[edit] Aznar Years
In 1989, Popular Alliance, PDP and PL merged in the People's Party.
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, new 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.
Shortly after, on September 4th, 1989, José María Aznar (then president of the Meeting of Castilla and León) was elected candidate to the general elections, at the suggestion of the 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 1996, and José María Aznar was invested as president of the Government with the support of the Basque Nationalist Party, CiU and the Canary Coalition.
In 1998 the Basque Nationalist Party negotiations with ETA produced no agreement, but subsequently the two formed a nationalist front in the "Pact of Estella" and, after the elections of May of 1999, having wagered Euskal Herritarrok, successor of Herri Batasuna, by the democratic ways, a Basque Nationalist Party government agreement signs itself-EA-EH and breaks the agreement between Basque Nationalist Party People's Party.
The Basque Nationalist Party abandons the European People's Party and in spite of being an associate founder of the Christian Democrat International is obliged to abandon the IDC by a PP change of statutes coaxed Parted and motivated, according to some European parties, by the agreements of the Basque Nationalist Party with ETA during 1997-1999.
ETA granted a truce from September of 1998 until December of 1999, in which the popular Government regrouped 135 prisoners of the organization and was interviewed fruitlessly with ETA, after what continued with a severe antiterrorista politics of harassment to ETA and to its environment for all the political, legal, social and international possible ways.
In January of 1999, Álvarez Cascos abandons the general office of the secretary of the party in favor of Javier Arenas.
The general elections of 2000 wins the PP by extensive majority with 183 seats against the 129 of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
During this legislature was produced a distancing between the People's Party and CiU. In August 30, 2003 Aznar confirmed its commitment announced years ago of continue not as the leader of the party. To his proposal, the executive board of the Party and the National board of directors choose to Mariano Rajoy to be presidential candidate of the government and Secretary general of the party. It is in this last phase where the government directed by Aznar suffers a greater wear fruit of the pressure of the opposition of left and/or nationalist and its related media around events as the labor reform (that was object of a general strike), the sinking of the Prestige (see Nunca Máis) or the War in Iraq (see Demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq of 2003, alleging Aznar in relation This last that "The Iraqi regime has weapons of massive destruction, has bonds with terrorist groups and has shown along its history that is a threat for all". "It can be sure, and can be sure all the people that see us (of) that I am speaking them the truth" Later the flat falsehood of these affirmations was ascertained, that were recognized so much by George W. Bush as by Tony Blair, participating along with Aznar in the meeting of the Azores).
In August 2003, Mariano Rajoy was appointed secretary general by Aznar and therefore became the party's candidate for the presidence in the Spanish general election, 2004.
In 2004 elections, held three days after the terrorist March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, Rajoy lost to a landslide victory by socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. What happened in the three days between the terrorist attacks and the elections is subject to hot political dispute. But the wide perception among the Spanish public at the time was that they were being deceived by the Aznar government. This was no doubt a fundamental factor in Zapatero's victory. This perception led to demonstrations before the PP headquarters as the ETA version faded, which the party argues were organised by the PSOE illegally for electoral purposes.
The terrorist bombings in Madrid led to a deep social and political fracture in Spain, between the PP and other political forces, which remains to this day.
[edit] Opposition 2004-present
The PP under Rajoy has been following a hard-line opposition to the PSOE government since it lost the elections in 2004. Its political strategy has three main axis. Firstly, opposing further devolution to Catalonia by means of the newly approved "Estatut". Secondly, opposing the (now ended) peace process with ETA during the 2006 truce and alleged "political concessions" to the Basque separatists in exchange for peace. Thirdly, PP politicians continue to offer indirect support to conspiracy theories related to the 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid. These theories seem to point to PSOE and police involvement in the terrorist attacks.
The AVT or Association of Terrorist Victims, is now a key ally of the Partido Popular, being capable of mobilising hundreds of thousands of PP supporters in anti-government demonstrations.
[edit] Notable members
- Mariano Rajoy Brey (Party's President)
- Ángel Acebes Paniagua (Party's Secretary General)
- Manuel Fraga Iribarne (Party's Founding President, served as minister for Propaganda and Tourism during Francisco Franco's fascist dictatorship)
- José María Aznar López (Former Prime Minister, Party's Honorary President)
- Eduardo Zaplana (Speaker of People's Party in the Spanish Congress)
- Esperanza Aguirre (President of the Community of Madrid)
- Francisco Camps (President of the Community of Valencia)
- Juan Vicente Herrera (President of the Community of Castilla y León
- Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso (President of the Region of Murcia)
- Jaume Matas (President of the Balearic Islands)
- Alberto Ruiz Gallardón (Mayor of Madrid)
- Rodrigo Rato (Director of the International Monetary Fund)
