Convergència i Unió
| European party | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chairman | logo | |
|
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| Convergència i Unió (CiU) | ||
| Distribution: |
 Catalonia
|
|
| Establishment date: | September 19, 1978 | |
| Place of foundation: | ||
| Resolution: | June 18, 2015 | |
| Party President: | Artur Mas i Gavarró | |
| Secretary General: | Ramon Espadaler | |
| Founding President: | Jordi Pujol i Soley | |
| Party structure: | 8 regional divisions ( catalan Federació ) in Catalonia | |
| Youth organization: | UDC: Unió de Joves (UJ) , CDC: Joventut Nacionalista de Catalunya (JNC) | |
| Alignment: | Liberal (CDC), Christian Democratic (UDC), Catalan nationalist | |
| Address: | Còrsega, 331-333 08037 Barcelona |
|
| Website: | www.ciu.cat | |
| Europe Party : | ELDR (CDC), EVP (UDC) | |
| Strength | ||
| Cat. Parliament: | 50 seats = 30.7% (1st) | |
| Congreso : | 16 of 350 seats = 4.17% (3rd) | |
| Senado | 13 of 266 seats (3.) | |
| EU Parliament : | 2 out of 54 Spanish seats | |
| Autonomies : | Government in: Catalonia
|
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Convergència i Unió [ kumbəɾˈʒεnsiə i uniˈo ] ( CiU ) was a party alliance with regional roots in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia . It emerged in 1978 from the merger of the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC, Democratic Pact of Catalonia) and the Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC, Democratic Union of Catalonia). The alliance was dissolved on June 18, 2015.
Member parties
Since 2001, the CiU was a possible party association under Spanish law ( federación de partidos ), whose members were the CDC and UDC parties. As such, the CiU had its own organs (board of directors, party conferences, etc.). However, the CDC and UDC also continued to exist as legally independent parties with their own organs.
The CDC, founded in 1974, is a liberal party and a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe . The UDC, which was founded in 1931 during the Second Republic , is more of a Christian Democrat and part of the European People's Party .
Most recently Artur Mas , the chairman of the CDC, was also the chairman of the CiU, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida , the chairman of the UDC, was also the general secretary of the CiU.
history
1977 to 1979
After the end of the Franco dictatorship, the first free elections took place in 1977. In these the House of Representatives and the Senate of the constituent Cortes Generales were elected. In the elections to the House of Representatives , the CDC and UDC each competed separately in alliance with other Catalan parties, but in the simultaneous elections to the Senate they already ran together. But they also formed a common parliamentary group in the House of Representatives (together with the ERC ). The parliamentary group leader Miquel Roca belonged to the commission of seven members, which was concerned with the drafting of the new constitution, and thus to the later so-called padres de la constitución ("fathers of the constitution"). The CDC and UDC MPs and Senators voted for the new constitution that provided for the creation of the Autonomous Communities , and the two parties called for its adoption in a referendum .
In 1978, UDC and CDC joined forces under the name of Convergència i Unió (CiU) for upcoming elections as an electoral alliance and took part in the elections to the Cortes Generales on March 1, 1979 for the first time as such. Shortly after the election, parliamentary work began on the Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia , which was also approved by the members of the CiU and which came into force after a referendum in Catalonia in December 1979.
1980 to 2003: ruling party in Catalonia
As a result, the first elections to the Catalan regional parliament took place on March 20, 1980, from which the CiU emerged as the strongest force in terms of both votes and seats. The prime candidate of the CiU, Jordi Pujol, was elected Prime Minister of the region ( President de la Generalitat ) , who held this office for six legislative periods until 2003. From 1984 to 1995 the CiU had an absolute majority in the regional parliament, after which Pujol ruled with a minority government.
After the regional election in 1999, in which the CiU fell behind the PSC in terms of the number of votes, but remained the strongest force in parliament in terms of the number of mandates, Pujol prepared for his retirement from politics and Artur Mas became his successor built up.
While the CiU had only been an electoral alliance up until then, which was newly formed by the CDC and the UDC for each election, the two parties joined at the end of 2001 to form a party association ( federación de partidos ), which not only joined Election times and has its own organs.
2003 to 2010: Opposition in Catalonia
After the regional elections in 2003, for which the CiU ran for the first time with Artur Mas as the top candidate, a left-wing coalition of PSC , ERC and ICV was formed . The CiU had to go into opposition for the first time in 23 years in Catalonia. During this legislative period, a new statute of autonomy for Catalonia was drawn up. A broad consensus was required for this, because its adoption required a 2/3 majority in the regional parliament, a majority in the Spanish parliament in Madrid and, finally, the approval in a referendum in Catalonia. The new Statute of Autonomy was finally adopted in 2006 with the votes of the CiU, which also campaigned for its adoption in the referendum.
Even after the election to the regional parliament in 2006 following the adoption of the new Statute of Autonomy, a coalition of PSC, ERC and ICV was formed again and the CiU remained in the opposition.
2010: return to government
After the regional elections in 2010, the CiU returned to government with Artur Mas as Prime Minister at the helm of a minority government initially tolerated by the PSC.
2012: turning to "sobiranisme"
In line with this pragmatic stance, the question of Catalonia's independence from Spain until 2012 did not play a particularly significant role in CiU politics. Only parts of the alliance seriously and in the foreseeable future demanded it. This changed after September 11, 2012. On this day, the national holiday of Catalonia , a demonstration of the independence movement took place in Barcelona under the motto “Catalunya nou Estat d'Europa” (Catalonia, a new state of Europe). The influx significantly exceeded expectations. The number of participants (depending on the source) was between 600,000 and 2 million (i.e. between 8 and 25% of the region's total population). The next day, Prime Minister Artur Mas made an official statement that the time had come to provide Catalonia with “state structures”.
In the general debate on his government's policy on September 25, 2012, Mas announced in the regional parliament that new elections would be scheduled for November 25, 2012. He justified this with the extraordinary situation that arose with the mass demonstration of September 11th and the refusal of the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ( PP ) to enter into negotiations on a reorganization of the financial relations between the state and the region. In this debate, the regional parliament u. a. with the votes of the CiU, a resolution calling for a referendum in Catalonia on the future relationship of the region to Spain for the next legislative period.
According to the previous history, the election campaign was strongly influenced by this topic. The CiU avoided the use of the term "independence" in its election manifesto, but called for a "state of its own" within the European Union as the goal of the process for Catalonia .
The CiU was then again the strongest force in the regional election on November 25, 2012 , but fell far short of its own expectations and even posted the worst result in regional elections since 1984. The left-wing nationalists of the ERC, on the other hand, who also included the term in their election manifesto Who needed “independence” could more than double the number of their mandates.
After the election defeat, tensions arose between the more nationally oriented CDC and the UDC. The chairman of the UDC, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida , criticized in an interview that the CiU did not try to win votes in the election campaign, although it was Catalan nationalist but against independence from Spain.
After the election in December 2012, the CiU and ERC concluded a tolerance agreement, whereupon Artur Mas was re-elected Prime Minister by the regional parliament with the votes of these two groups. The agreement provides for the creation of the framework conditions for a referendum to take place in Catalonia in 2014 on whether the region should form a “state within a European framework”. As a first step in this process, the regional parliament should adopt a "Declaration on the Sovereignty of the People of Catalonia".
2015: Tensions between CDC and UDC and dissolution of the CiU
In January 2015, the Catalan Prime Minister Mas (CDC) announced early elections to the regional parliament for September 27, 2015, which should have a "plebiscitary" character on the question of the region's independence. In March 2015, the CDC, together with other Catalan nationalist forces, signed a declaration according to which the parliament, which was elected in September 2015, would initiate a constituent process. The UDC did not sign this statement. In June 2015, its members adopted in a strike vote with a narrow majority a proposal that excludes a unilateral declaration of independence and the "initiation of a constitutional process that does not move within the legal framework".
As a result, the CDC called on the UDC on June 15, 2015 to report "immediately" whether it would continue to stand by Prime Minister Mas' independence plans and intend to run the regional elections in September 2015 together with the CDC. The UDC Board responded to this ultimatum by deciding to withdraw its three ministers from the Catalan regional government.
On June 16, 2015 the Secretary General of the CDC declared “the CiU project” over after a board meeting of the party. Due to an ongoing falling out in the coalition, the alliance was dissolved on June 18, 2015.
Political significance at local level
In Catalonia, the CiU is also of crucial importance at the municipal level. Until the local elections in 2011, however, the PSC provided the mayor of the provincial capitals of Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona and Lleida. Since then, however, the CiU has also provided the mayors of Barcelona and Girona.
Political importance on the whole of Spain
The CiU has also played an important role in politics at the Spanish level since 1979. Since the election in 2000 it has been the third largest parliamentary group in the House of Representatives. Especially in the legislative periods in which neither of the two large parties (PP and PSOE) had an absolute majority, the CiU served as an important "majority procurer" and ensured the governability of the country through its voting behavior. However, she never joined a government coalition. In return, the governing parties made concessions to the political demands of the CiU, especially on the question of the financing and competencies of the autonomous communities. After the 1993 election, the regions received from the PSOE government for the first time a share of 15% of the income tax collected in their respective area. After the 1996 election, the PP government increased this percentage to 30% and the Catalonia region received a. responsibility for the traffic police, active labor market policy and seaports on their territory.
Election results
In previous elections to the Spanish House of Representatives (350 seats in total), the CiU achieved the following results:
| elections |
|
|
|||
| based on
all of Spain |
based on
Catalonia |
all in all | from that
CDC |
from that
UDC |
|
| 1979 |
2.69%
|
16.38%
|
8th
|
7th
|
1
|
| 1982 |
3.67%
|
22.48%
|
12 1
|
8th
|
3
|
| 1986 |
5.02%
|
32.00%
|
18th
|
13
|
5
|
| 1989 |
5.04%
|
32.68%
|
18th
|
13
|
5
|
| 1993 |
4.94%
|
31.82%
|
17th
|
12
|
5
|
| 1996 |
4.60%
|
29.61%
|
16
|
11
|
5
|
| 2000 |
4.19%
|
28.79%
|
15 1
|
10
|
4th
|
| 2004 |
3.23%
|
20.78%
|
10
|
6th
|
4th
|
| 2008 |
3.03%
|
20.93%
|
10
|
6th
|
4th
|
| 2011 |
4.17%
|
29.35%
|
16
|
10
|
6th
|
In the previous elections to the regional parliament of Catalonia (a total of 135 seats), the CiU achieved the following results:
| elections |
|
|
|
||
| all in all | from that
CDC |
from that
UDC |
|||
| 1980 |
28.00%
|
43 1
|
33
|
8th
|
Minority government of the CiU |
| 1984 |
47.03%
|
72 2
|
55
|
16
|
CiU government (absolute majority) 7 |
| 1988 |
45.72%
|
69 3
|
53
|
15th
|
CiU government (absolute majority) |
| 1992 |
46.19%
|
70 4
|
53
|
16
|
CiU government (absolute majority) |
| 1995 |
40.95%
|
60 2
|
45
|
14th
|
Minority government of the CiU |
| 1999 |
37.70%
|
56 5
|
40
|
13
|
Minority government of the CiU |
| 2003 |
30.94%
|
46
|
33
|
13
|
|
| 2006 |
31.52%
|
48
|
32
|
16
|
|
| 2010 |
38.43%
|
62 6
|
43
|
18th
|
Minority government of the CiU |
| 2012 |
30.70%
|
50
|
39
|
11
|
Minority government of the CiU, tolerance agreement with ERC |
See also
Web links
- Party website (Catalan)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Source: www.ciu.info ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ since the elections in Catalonia on November 25, 2012
- ↑ a b Since the elections on November 20, 2011
- ↑ European elections 2009
- ↑ Arranca la campaña con el debate soberanista como eje central. In: El País. Retrieved November 9, 2012 (Spanish).
Group of the People's Party : PP (119) | Socialist Group: PSOE - PSC (89) | Podemos Group: Podemos - EM - ECP (65) | Ciudadanos Group: C’s (40) | Republican Left Group: ERC (9) | Catalan Group: CDC (8) | Basque Group: EAJ-PNV (6) | Mixed faction: Compromís (4) EH Bildu (2) IU (2) UPN (2) CC - PNC (1) FAC (1) NC (1) non- party (formerly PP) (1)