Union, Progress and Democracy


Union, Progress and Democracy was a Spanish radical centrist political party founded in September 2007 and dissolved in December 2020. It was a social-liberal party that rejected any form of nationalism, especially the separatist Basque and Catalan movements. The party was deeply pro-Europeanist and wanted the European Union to adopt a federal system without overlap between European, national, and regional governments. It also wanted to replace the State of Autonomies with a much more centralist, albeit still politically decentralized, unitary system as well as substituting a more proportional election law for the current one.
UPyD first stood for election in the 9 March 2008 general election. It received 303,246 votes, or 1.2% of the national total. It won one seat in the Congress of Deputies for party co-founder Rosa Díez, becoming the newest party with national representation in Spain. Although its core was in the Basque Autonomous Community, with roots in anti-ETA civic associations, it addressed a national audience. Prominent members of the party included philosopher Fernando Savater, party founder and former PSOE MEP Rosa Díez, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán and writer Álvaro Pombo.
In the general elections held on 20 November 2011, the party won 1,143,225 votes, five seats which it was able to form a parliamentary group with in the Congress of Deputies and became the fourth-largest political force in the country. It had the greatest increase of votes over the previous general election of any party. In the 2015 general election, however, it suffered a decline in its vote power by losing all of its seats. In the 2016 general election, it dropped to just 0.2% of the national vote.
On 18 November 2020, a judge ordered the dissolution of the party and its erasure from the registry of political parties, as it did not have the financial solvency to pay off the debt contracted with a former worker. The party announced that it would appeal the sentence. On 6 December 2020, it was announced that the party would no longer appeal the sentence, thus formally extinguishing UPyD.

History

Origins

Background

On 19 May 2007, 45 people met in San Sebastián to discuss the creation of a new political party opposing both major parties at the national level. Most present were Basques, many of whom had long experience in political, union and civic organizations with left-wing, liberal and activist backgrounds. After the meeting, to create a broad-based social and political project they formed the Plataforma Pro organization. This united those who considered it necessary to form a new national political party appealing to people across the democratic political spectrum. Its platform was mainly centered around the fight against ETA and politically motivated violence, the regeneration of Spanish democracy and reforming the Constitution of 1978 to reinforce civil liberties and equality, independent of regional origin.
Among the supporters of Plataforma Pro were philosopher Fernando Savater, ¡Basta Ya! coordinator and spokesman Carlos Martínez Gorriarán and former Spanish Socialist Workers' Party MEP Rosa Díez. Díez resigned her PSOE membership and her MEP position in August 2007 to become involved with the UPyD project. Groups supporting Plataforma Pro included Citizens of Catalonia and ¡Basta Ya!, a major influence on the new movement. In September 2007, Forum Ermua president Mikel Buesa announced their intention to participate in the political party arising from Plataforma Pro; he resigned in 2009 due to disagreements with Rosa Díez.

Founding

At a 29 September 2007 meeting in the auditorium of the Casa de Campo in Madrid, the new party was formed under the name of Union, Progress and Democracy. Participants in its formation included Catalan dramatist Albert Boadella, Basque philosopher Fernando Savater, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and Rosa Díez. Also present were journalist Arcadi Espada, anthropologists Teresa Giménez Barbat and Felix Perez Romera, historian Antonio Elorza, painter Agustín Ibarrola, former Forum Ermua leader Mikel Buesa, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, Citizens deputies Albert Rivera and Antonio Robles Almeida, Peruvian writer Fernando Iwasaki, former UGT secretary general Nicolas Redondo and People's Party Basque MP Fernando Maura. Maura joined the new party's advisory council on 6 November 2007. Writer Álvaro Pombo later expressed support for UPyD, running as a candidate for the party.

Infighting

In July 2009, party co-founder Mikel Buesa announced his resignation from UPyD, denouncing "authoritarian control" imposed by a group in the party. After its First Party Congress in November 2009, 100 UPyD critics left the party, "tired and disappointed" with the "authoritarian" Rosa Díez and the party's "lack of internal democracy". By early 2010, the party lost 40% of its membership in Catalonia, amid allegations that the party was a fraud.

Elections

The party's national spokesperson, Rosa Díez, won a seat in the general election of 2008 from Madrid Province with 3.74 percent of the vote. Other prominent candidates were writer Álvaro Pombo and Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, both of whom failed to win seats.
In 2009, the party gained representation in 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 seven 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 Madrid, Burgos, Ávila, Granada, Alicante and Murcia. UPyD received the fourth-largest number of votes in the 2011 general election: 1,143,225, or 4.70%. Of the five seats won, four were in Madrid; actor Toni Cantó was elected in Valencia Province.
In the 2014 European Parliament Elections, Francisco Sosa Wagner was re-elected, and UPyD won three extra seats, consolidating their support nationwide. The party's MEPs joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group.

Decay and dissolution

In the 2015 general election, UPyD suffered a decline in its vote power by losing all of its seats, while the liberal Citizens party raised as an alternative. By the 2016 general election, the party's popularity dropped to just 0.2% of the national vote.
The party took part in the 2019 European Parliament elections in the party list of Citizens, achieving a single MEP.
On 18 November 2020, the party's dissolution and its erasure from the registry of political parties was ordered, as it did not have the financial solvency to pay off the debt contracted with a former worker. The party announced that it would appeal the sentence, but on 6 December 2020 the party announced that it would no longer appeal it, thus formally extinguishing UPyD.

Ideology

Official stance

Ideologically, UPyD didn't align itself with either the left or the right. Likewise, the magenta party refused to position itself within centrism. When asked to locate itself on the left–right political spectrum, UPyD defined itself simply as a progressive party that stood up for transversality. Consequently, the party vehemently defended the ideas it deemed progressive across the entire political spectrum. The magenta electorate included not only ex-voters disillusioned with the Socialist Party but also electors from the right. According to spokesperson Rosa Díez, UPyD embraced both left-wing progressives and right-wing liberals. Other additional identity signs were the following:
  • "Centralism": defined as "the political concentration of key powers—such as education, health, water resource management, and transport management—within a strong unitary state". In contrast, non-essential responsibilities would have been symmetrically assigned to the autonomous communities.
  • "Constitutionalism": defined as "the maintenance of the Spanish rule of law by enforcing the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in regions where it is violated and non-nationalist citizens suffer discrimination. Simultaneously, the instrumental articles of the Constitution should be amended to ensure that its non-negotiable ones—those upholding freedom, equality, cohesion, the separation of powers, and the protection of all Spanish citizens under an independent judiciary—are effectively implemented".
  • "Liberal democracy": defined as "the form of government which best balances power and individual rights".
  • "Monarchism": defined as "the acceptance of the monarchy of Spain insofar as it carries out its function with austerity, transparency, and exemplary conduct".
  • "Non-nationalism": defined as "the opposition to compulsory nationalism". Rosa Díez denied that the magenta party identified with anti-nationalism, Spanish nationalism and postnationalism.
  • "Pro-Europeanism": defined as "the desire to move toward a genuine European federalism, with the concept of citizenship as a fundamental pillar".
  • "Radicalism: defined as "the ambition of transforming politics by bringing off substantial, in-depth changes from within institutions".
  • "Secularism": defined as "the neutrality of the state not only toward all legitimate religious beliefs but also the convictions of non-believers". However, UPyD wouldn't have applied this neutrality to illegitimate religions such as Islam, which aren't respectful of human rights and the Spanish rule of law.
  • "Social liberalism": defined as "the support for a mixed economic system in which the free-market economy features broad state intervention to correct its social inefficiencies, thereby making the welfare state compatible with individual liberty". Rosa Díez specified that social liberalism was UPyD's core political doctrine, since the party combines elements of political liberalism and social democracy.
  • "Spanish patriotism": defined as "the defence of shared values, which mostly are justice, freedom, equality, and loyalty to one's fellow countrymen". Rosa Díez asserted that UPyD was an unequivocally national party that had a unique agenda for Spain.