COPEI
| COPEI | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Party leader | Roberto Enriquez |
| founding | January 13, 1946 |
| Headquarters | Caracas |
| Colours) | green and blue |
| Parliament seats | 8/165 |
| International connections | Christian Democratic International |
| Website | partidocopei.com |
The COPEI (derived from Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente ; German independent political election organization committee ) was the second largest party in Venezuela until the 1990s . Rafael Caldera , who was president from 1969 to 1974, was co-founder and “father” of the Christian Democratic Party . The COPEI provided the President in Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and 1979 to 1984.
The party was founded to run in the first election in 1946 after the (temporary) introduction of democracy in Venezuela. Its cumbersome name Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente was initially only a provisional solution, but the acronym COPEI derived from it became commonplace and is still used today, occasionally with additional names such as Partido Social Cristiano ('Christian Social Party') or Partido Popular (' People's Party '). A slang name for the party is partido verde ("the green party"), derived from its campaign color.
history
The party has its historical roots in political Catholicism , which gained in importance in Venezuela from the 1930s. Forerunners were the Catholic student organization Unión Nacional Estudiantil (UNE; 'National Student Union') founded in 1936 and the Acción Nacional party (AN; 'National Action') founded in 1938 . From the beginning, Rafael Caldera played an important role. He was a member of the international Catholic student organization Pax Romana and the lay movement Catholic Action . Caldera and his colleagues were shaped by the clashes with left-wing students, but wanted to create a party in the spirit of Christian social doctrine that was not shaped by reactionary conservatives and was also not under the direct influence of the church.
During the military dictatorship from 1948 to 1958, the activities of the COPEI were hindered. After its end, it concluded the Punto Fijo Agreement with the other two pro-democracy parties, the moderate-nationalist Acción Democrática (AD) and the progressive-liberal Unión Republicana Democrática (URD) . In it they agreed on a coalition government and agreed to exclude certain controversial areas from the political debate in order to create a stable democratic system. This laid the foundation for a pact democracy , in which AD and COPEI took turns in power without serious political competition for the following three decades after the URD's demise. Caldera won the 1968 election and became president.
During his reign, the COPEI moved further from its specifically Catholic roots and developed into a relatively non-ideological party of the political center. After Caldera's presidency (1969–74) and five years in the opposition, the COPEI appointed Luís Herrera Campíns as president for the second time from 1979 to 1984 . The two-party system, with its lack of control and, in some cases, unclear responsibilities, led to an inflated apparatus, rampant corruption and the population's declining trust in politics. Rafael Caldera turned his back on his party before the 1993 elections and ran as a candidate for the Convergencia Nacional alliance , with the support of smaller, left-wing opposition parties, and became president for the second time, now without the COPEI party membership card. In doing so, he surrendered his former party to a practical collapse into political insignificance.
Its importance dwindled even faster than that of the other traditional party AD. Even in the opposition to the government coalition of President Hugo Chávez , who ruled from 1998 , she only plays a subordinate role. In the parliamentary elections in 2000 she only achieved five of the 165 seats in the National Assembly, in 2005 she did not take part in the parliamentary elections. In the parliamentary elections in 2010, the party got five seats again. Since 2008 she has been part of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) opposition alliance against the governments of Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro . The opposition's joint presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2013 elections, Henrique Capriles , started his career at COPEI, but has been a member of the newer center-right Primero Justicia since 2000 .
COPEI in the National Assembly
The following COPEI politicians are members of the National Assembly in 2010:
- Enrique Mendoza (Miranda)
- Gabino Paz ( Táchira )
- Abelardo Díaz (Táchira)
- Homero Ruíz (Táchira)
- Mervin Méndez ( Zulia )
See also
Web links
literature
In order of appearance:
- Manuel Vicente Magallanes: Cuatro partidos nacionales: Acción Democrática, COPEI, Partido Comunista de Venezuela, Unión Republicana Democrática . Diana, Caracas 1973.
- Santiago Maggi Cook: Formación democrática en América Latina. La contribución venezolana de Acción Democrática y COPEI . In: Nueva Sociedad , Vol. 7 (1978), No. 34, pp. 40-55.
- Brian F. Crisp, Daniel H. Levine, Jose E. Molina: The Rise and Decline of COPEI in Venezuela. In: Christian Democracy in Latin America. Electoral Competition and Regime Conflicts. Stanford University Press, 2003, pp. 275-300.
Individual evidence
- ^ Crisp, Levine, Molina: The Rise and Decline of COPEI. 2003, p. 275
- ↑ a b Crisp, Levine, Molina: The Rise and Decline of COPEI. 2003, p. 276
- ↑ Thomas Kestler: The Venezuelan Political System. In: The Political Systems in North and Latin America. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 585-586.
- ↑ Kestler: The Venezuelan Political System. 2008, p. 587.
- ^ Crisp, Levine, Molina: The Rise and Decline of COPEI. 2003, p. 294