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The Union of the Democratic Centre (Spanish: Unión de Centro Democrático, UCD, also translated as "Democratic Centre Union") was an electoral alliance, and later political party, in Spain, existing from 1977 to 1983. It was initially led by Adolfo Suárez (1932–2014).
History
Formation
The coalition, in fact a federation of parties, was formed on 3 May 1977, during the transition to democracy from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, with the involvement of leaders from a variety of newly formed centrist and rightist factions, under the leadership of Suárez, then Prime Minister. The principal components of the UCD defined themselves as Christian democrats, liberals, social democrats, or "independents", the latter frequently comprising conservative elements which had been part of the Franco regime.
Some months later, all these parties were merged and UCD constituted itself as a party on 4 August 1977.
In government
In the elections of 15 June 1977, the party took 34.4% of the vote and 166 seats of the 350 in the Congress of Deputies. The party governed as a minority and worked with all major parties in the Congress, including the rightist People's Alliance and the parties of the left, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Communists (PCE). Suárez became the first democratically chosen prime minister of Spain after the Franco period. The UCD played a major role in writing the new constitution, as three of the seven members of the constitutional drafting commission, established after those elections, came from the party.
In 1979, the Socialist Workers' Party moderated its outlook by dropping the references to Marxism from its programme. At the same time, the right-wing People's Alliance increasingly moved to the political centre (and, by undergoing a generational change, could overcome its Francoist image), thus the space for the centrist UCD shrank.[12] Despite this, the UCD was returned for a second term in the 1979 general election, with a slight increase in vote share but could not attain a majority, with 34.8% of the vote and 168 deputies.
Internal divisions and defections
The demise of the UCD began when an internal conflict emerged between its diverse factions. Many believe that the only factor that had kept the party together was the writing of the constitution. With that work done, the party became increasingly unpopular due to the growth of unemployment, inflation and the general economic crisis affecting the country.
During the course of the 1979–1982 legislature, the party suffered a number of serious splits and defections. On 7 March 1980, Joaquim Molins resigned from the UCD group and later joined the Catalan Nationalist Convergence and Union. On 25 April 1980, Manuel Clavero resigned from the party in disputes over the statute of autonomy for Andalusia. Two months later, José García Pérez resigned over the same issue; García would join the Andalusian Socialist Party on 1 September 1981. Meanwhile, Suárez resigned as prime minister in January 1981. He was replaced by Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo for the remainder of the term of the Cortes.
Although the UCD had been joined by José María de Areilza and Antoni de Senillosa, who had defected from the AP, the UCD party group had now been reduced to 124 deputies - 52 short of a majority. The PSOE at this point had 118 deputies and could also count on the support of the 10 deputies of the PAD and the 21 members of the Communist Party. In light of this new situation in Parliament, Calvo Sotelo called fresh elections.
1982 election and disbanding
Following the 1981 coup attempt, the socialists convincingly won the 1982 general election. The UCD, presenting Landelino Lavilla Alsina as its candidate for prime minister, was nearly wiped out, taking only 6.7% of the vote and 11 seats, losing over 100 of their sitting deputies—one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a western European governing party. The CDS also fared poorly, with only two of its sixteen sitting deputies winning seats.
Most of the UCD's electorate became supporters of the AP-PDP alliance, which later became the People's Party, today Spain's principal conservative party. The AP-PDP displaced the UCD as the main alternative to the PSOE.
Many ex-ministers and leaders of the UCD also joined the AP ranks. Subsequently, the UCD was disbanded on 18 February 1983.
Hopkin, Jonathan (1999), Party Formation and Democratic Transition in Spain: The Creation and Collapse of the Union of the Democratic Centre, Macmillan Press, ISBN0312219121
^ abBozóki, András; Lomax, Bill (1996), "The revenge of history: The Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian transitions — some comparisons", Stabilising Fragile Democracies: Comparing new party systems in Southern and Eastern Europe, Routledge, p. 197
^ abcdStory, Jonathan (1995), "Spain's external relations redefined: 1975–1989", Democratic Spain: Reshaping External Relations in a Changing World, Routledge, p. 33
^ abcdSteed, Michael; Humphreys, Peter (1988), "Identifying liberal parties", Liberal Parties in Western Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 425–426
^Matuschek, Peter (2004), "Who Learns from Whom?: The Failure of Spanish Christian Democracy and the Success of the Partido Popular", Christian Democratic Parties in Europe since the End of the Cold War, Leuven University Press, p. 244
^Encarnación, Omar G. (2008), Spanish Politics, Polity Press, p. 55
^Montero, José Ramón (1999), "Stabilising the Democratic Order: Electoral Behaviour in Spain", Politics and Policy in Democratic Spain, Frank Cass, pp. 62–63
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