Convergence and Union

Convergència i Unio [ kumbəɾʒεnsiə i unio ] ( CiU ) is an alliance of parties with regional roots in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia. It is in 1978 from the merger of Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya ( CDC, Democratic Pact of Catalonia ) and the Unio Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC, Democratic Union of Catalonia ) emerged.

Member parties

Since 2001, the CiU is possible under Spanish law party federation ( Federación de partidos ), whose members are the parties CDC and UDC. The CiU as such has its own organs (Board, party, etc.). In addition, CDC and UDC, however, exist as a legally independent parties with their own organs on.

The CDC founded in 1974, is a party Liberal form and a member of the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party ( ELDR). The UDC was created in 1931 during the Second Republic is geared more towards Christian Democrat and part of the European People's Party.

Currently, Artur Mas Chairman of the CiU and the CDC, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida is chairman of the UDC and Secretary General of the CiU.

History

1977-1979

After the end of Franco's dictatorship in 1977 found the first free elections were held. In these, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Constituent Cortes Generales were elected. In the elections for the House of Representatives, however, CDC and UDC competed separately in alliance with other Catalan parties, in the simultaneous elections to the Senate already common. But they also formed the House of Representatives a common fraction ( together with the ERC). Group leader Miquel Roca was a member of the Commission of seven members who was involved in the drafting of the new constitution, and thus to the later so-called padres de la Constitución ( " fathers of the Constitution "). Deputies and Senators of CDC and UDC voted for the new constitution, which provided for the creation of the Autonomous Communities, and the two parties called in the popular vote on their adoption.

1978 UDC and CDC joined forces under the name as Convergència i Unio ( CiU ) for future elections as an alliance and entered in the elections to the Cortes Generales of 1 March 1979 for the first time as such. Shortly after the election began the parliamentary work on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which the deputies of the CiU also agreed and joined in December 1979 after a referendum in Catalonia in force.

1980-2003: Government Party in Catalonia

Then was 20 March 1980 at the first elections to the Catalan regional Parliament, from which the CiU emerged both by votes and after sitting as the strongest. To the Prime Minister of the Region ( President de la Generalitat ) the top candidate of the CiU Jordi Pujol was elected, who held this office six legislative periods until 2003. From 1984 to 1995, the CiU decreed it an absolute majority in the regional parliament, then Pujol ruled with a minority government.

After the regional elections in 1999, in which the CiU but according to the number of votes, although behind the PSC fallen back on the number of mandates continue to drive sales force had remained in parliament, Pujol prepared his retirement from politics before and Artur Mas was as his successor established.

While it had been up to that point in the CiU merely an electoral alliance, newly formed by the CDC and UDC to each election, the two parties signed the end of 2001 together for a party federation ( Federación de partidos ), not only to election time is and has its own organs.

2003-2010: Opposition in Catalonia

After the regional elections of 2003, for the first time took with CiU, Artur Mas as the leading candidate, a left-wing coalition of the PSC, ERC and ICV was formed. The CiU had to play in Catalonia to go into opposition for the first time in 23 years. In this legislative session, a new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was developed. For this purpose, a broad consensus was necessary because to its adoption a 2/3-majority in the regional parliament, a majority of the total Spanish parliament in Madrid and finally the adoption by referendum in Catalonia was necessary. The new Statute of Autonomy was finally adopted in 2006 by a vote of CiU, which also promoted the referendum for its adoption.

Even after following the adoption of the new Statute of Autonomy election to the regional parliament in 2006 formed another coalition of the PSC, ERC and ICV and the CiU remained in opposition.

From 2010: Return to the Government

Only after the regional elections of 2010, the CiU returned with Artur Mas back as prime minister at the head of an initially tolerated by the PSC minority government in the government.

Political significance at the local level

In Catalonia, the CiU has decisive significance at the local level. Until the local elections in 2011, however, presented in the provincial capitals Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona and Lleida the PSC the mayor. Since then, however, the CiU also the Mayor of Barcelona and Girona.

Political significance on the overall level Spanish

In politics, on a pan- Spanish level since 1979 played the CiU an important role. Thus, it provides uninterrupted since the election in 2000, the third largest group in the House of Representatives. In particular, in the legislatures, in which possessed neither of the two major parties (PP and PSOE) an absolute majority, the CiU served as a major "majority buyer " and, by their vote, the governance of the country safely. You, however, never entered a coalition government. In return, the government parties made ​​concessions to the political demands of the CiU, especially on the issue of funding and powers of the Autonomous Communities. Thus, the regions received after the 1993 election of the PSOE government for the first time accounted for 15 % of the amounts collected in their respective fields of income tax. After the 1996 election, this proportion was increased by the PP government to 30% and the Catalonia region received among others responsibility for the road traffic police, the active labor market policy and the seaports in their field.

2012: turning to sobiranisme

According to this pragmatic attitude, the question of the independence of Catalonia from Spain to 2012 in the policies of the CiU did not play a particularly important role. It was required only of parts of the alliance seriously and in the foreseeable future. This changed after 11 September 2012. On this day, the National Day of Catalonia, held in Barcelona under the slogan " Catalunya nou Estat d' Europe " (Catalonia, a new state in Europe ) a demonstration of the independence movement instead. The influx exceeded expectations considerably. The number of participants was ( depending on the source ) 600000-2 million ( ie 8-25 % of the total population of the Region). The next day, Prime Minister Artur Mas expressed in an official statement that the time had come to provide Catalonia with " state structures ".

In the general debate on the policies of his government Mas announced on 25 September 2012 in the regional parliament to convene new elections for November 25, 2012. He justified this with the exceptional situation, which was the mass demonstration on 11 September and the refusal of the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (PP ) to enter into negotiations over a restructuring of the financial relations between the State and the region, emerged. In this debate, the Regional Parliament adopted, inter alia, with the voices of the CiU to a resolution in which a referendum in Catalonia was demanded on the future relationship of the region to Spain for the next legislative session.

According to the history, the campaign was heavily influenced by this topic. The CiU avoided in its election manifesto, although the use of the term "independence", called the target of the process for Catalonia but an " independent state " within the framework of the European Union.

The CiU was then in regional elections on November 25, 2012, although again the strongest force, but fell far short of their own expectations and posted even the worst result in regional elections since 1984. The links nationalists of the ERC, however, in its election manifesto also the concept of "independence" were used, the number of their clients have been more than double.

After the election defeat, tensions arose between the more nationalist oriented CDC and UDC. The chairman of the UDC, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, criticized in an interview that the CiU have indeed Catalan- nationalist but tried during the campaign not for the votes against independence from Spain set voters.

CiU and ERC concluded after the election in December 2012, a toleration agreement, whereupon Artur Mas was elected with the votes of these two groups by the Regional Parliament again as prime minister. Under the agreement, to create the conditions that in 2014 in Catalonia, a referendum takes place about 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 ".

Election results

Spain

Catalonia

CDC

UDC

CDC

UDC