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Democratic Unity Roundtable Mesa de la Unidad Democrática | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 23 January 2008; 17 years ago (2008-01-23) |
| Dissolved | 21 April 2021; 4 years ago (2021-04-21)[citation needed] |
| Succeeded by | Unitary Platform |
| Ideology | Liberal democracy Anti-Chavism[1] Factions: Christian democracy Social democracy[2] Social liberalism[3] Progressivism Economic liberalism |
| Political position | Centre[A][4] |
| Colors | (Venezuelan national colors) Blue (customary) |
| Website | |
| unidadvenezuela.org | |
^ A: MUD includes a fewcentre-left andcentre-right parties as well. | |
TheDemocratic Unity Roundtable (Spanish:Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD) was acatch-allelectoral coalition ofVenezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to PresidentHugo Chávez'sUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela in the2010 Venezuelan parliamentary election.[5] A previous opposition umbrella group, theCoordinadora Democrática, had collapsed after the failure of the2004 Venezuelan recall referendum.
The coalition was made of primarilycentrist andcentre-left parties.[4][failed verification] The main components wereDemocratic Action andCopei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999. Since the2013 Venezuelan presidential election,Justice First became the largest opposition party, andHenrique Capriles Radonski became the leader of the opposition.
In the2015 parliamentary election, the coalition became the largest group in theNational Assembly with 112 out of 167 (asupermajority), ending sixteen years of PSUV rule of the country's unicameral parliament. In the2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, the MUD boycotted the election, and as theNational Assembly itself lost most of its power, PSUV retook its parliamentary majority.[6]
In July 2018, Democratic Action, one of the largest and most distinguished parties of the MUD, said they will leave the coalition.[7]
The MUD was formally launched on 23 January 2008 and restructured on 8 June 2009.[5][8] In June 2009 MUD included 11 political parties, and was led by Luis Ignacio Planas, President ofCopei.[5] By April 2010 the MUD included around 50 political parties, of which 16 were national in scope (the rest regional), and had support from some other social organisations and opinion groups.[9] The main parties included in MUD areDemocratic Action andCopei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999; the dissenting left-wing partiesMovement for Socialism,Radical Cause andRed Flag Party; and more recently established partiesProject Venezuela,A New Era,Justice First andFor Social Democracy ("PODEMOS").[9]
The MUD was supported by theMovimiento 2D opposition movement led byEl Nacional editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero.
Ramón Guillermo Aveledo[10] served as the MUD's Executive Secretary from March 2009 to July 2014.[11]
The journalist Jesús "Chúo" Torrealba became the coalition's current Executive Secretary in September 2014.[12]
The MUD declared common ideological points between its members in its National Unity Agreement. They support autonomy of State institutions. Furthermore, its members represent and foster ideological pluralism within the democratic Left. MUD supports freedom of work, property, press, and free education. It advocates decentralize power and federalization. It also promotes public security, defense of private property and economic freedoms, quality education, job creation, and job creation and fair distribution of income from national oil reserves. The MUD wants a foreign policy based on solidarity, especially Venezuela's neighbors. It also wants various policies to make Venezuela more democratic, especially in regards to reducing the institutional influence of the military and reforming electoral laws.
In early September 2012,David De Lima, a former governor of Anzoategui, published a document he said showed secret MUD plans to implement much moreneoliberal policy, if elected, than their public statements showed. De Lima said the document was a form of policy pact between some of the candidates in the MUD primary, including Capriles.[13] On 6 September 2012, opposition legislatorWilliam Ojeda denounced these plans and the "neoliberal obsessions" of his colleagues in the MUD;[14] he was suspended by hisA New Era party the following day.[15] One small coalition party claimed De Lima had offered them money to withdraw from the MUD;[16] De Lima denied the claim.[17]
In April 2010 the MUD held primaries in 15 electoral districts, with 361,000 voters participating, and selecting 22 candidates (the remaining 143 candidates were chosen "by consensus"[9]).[9] The candidates chosen includedMaría Corina Machado (ofSúmate) and Iván Simonovis, one of nine police officials allegedly serving time for participating in the alleged2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.[9] Several others of the nine, regarded by the MUD as political prisoners, were also nominated, in districts with a real chance of opposition success;[9] winning would require their release because ofparliamentary immunity.[9]Manuel Rosales, the opposition's candidate in the2006 Venezuelan presidential election and now in exile in Peru due to corruption charges (which Rosales denies), was also nominated.[9]
In the September 2010 election for theNational Assembly of Venezuela the MUD won around 47% of the vote nationally; however, it only gained 64 seats (out of 165) due to changes in population-vote distribution introduced by the incumbent national assembly that had a government party supermajority. In the same elections, theUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela won 48% of the vote and 98 seats, while thePatria Para Todos (PPT) party got only 2 seats.[18] Notable new deputies includedMaría Corina Machado andEnrique Mendoza.
The MUD held an openprimary election on 12 February 2012.[19]Henrique Capriles Radonski won the opposition primaries with 1,900,528 (64.2%) votes of the 3,059,024 votes cast (votes abroad not included).[20] The other candidates on the 12 February 2012 primary ballot were:[20]
In December 2015, MUD won 112 of the 167 seats in the National Assembly, a two-thirds supermajority.[21]
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| Party name | Acronym | Leader | Main ideology | Seats in the AN | International Associations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justice First Primero Justicia | PJ | Henrique Capriles Radonski | Humanism | 33 / 167 | None | |
| A New Era Un Nuevo Tiempo | UNT | Manuel Rosales | Social democracy | 18 / 167 | Socialist International | |
| Popular Will Voluntad Popular | VP | Leopoldo López | Progressivism Social democracy | 14 / 167 | Socialist International | |
| Radical Cause La Causa Radical | LCR | Andrés Velásquez | Labourism | 4 / 167 | None | |
| Progressive Movement of Venezuela [es] Movimiento Progresista de Venezuela | MPV | Simón Calzadilla | Progressivism | 4 / 167 | None | |
| Project Venezuela Proyecto Venezuela | PRVZL | Henrique Salas Feo | Liberal conservatism | 2 / 167 | IDU,UPLA | |
| Clear Accounts [es] Cuentas Claras | CC | Vicencio Scarano | Progressivism | 2 / 167 | None | |
| Progressive Advance Avanzada Progresista | AP | Henri Falcón | Democratic socialism[citation needed] | 2 / 167 | None | |
| Fearless People's Alliance Alianza Bravo Pueblo | ABP | Antonio Ledezma | Social democracy | 1 / 167 | None | |
| Emergent People Gente Emergente | GE | Julio César Reyes [es] | Social democracy | 1 / 167 | None | |
| National Convergence Convergencia Nacional | CN | Juan José Caldera [es] | Christian democracy | 0 / 167 | ODCA(observer) | |
| Movement for a Responsible, Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Venezuela Movimiento por una Venezuela Responsable, Sostenible y Emprendedora | MOVERSE | Alexis Romero | Green politics | 0 / 167 | None | |
| Ecological Movement of Venezuela Movimiento Ecológico de Venezuela | MOVEV | Manuel Díaz | Green politics | 0 / 167 | Global Greens | |
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(March 2016) |
TheChristian democraticCopei party was not a member of the coalition in the2015 parliamentary election, despite having been a founding member of the MUD.
TheCommunistRed Flag Party was a member of the coalition and supported the opposition candidateHenrique Capriles Radonski in the2012 presidential election, but due to different objectives, the Red Flag Party stepped out of the MUD.[22]
In August 2017,Come Venezuela left the Democratic Unity Roundtable over a disagreement regarding electoral participation.[23]
In July 2018, thesocial democraticDemocratic Action left the Democratic Unity Roundtable.[24]
| Election year | Name | # of overall votes | % of overall vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Henrique Capriles | 6,591,304 | 44.31 (#2) |
| Member ofJustice First party in coalition.Lost. | |||
| 2013 | Henrique Capriles | 7,363,980 | 49.12 (#2) |
| Member ofJustice First party in coalition.Lost. | |||
| Election year | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall seats won | +/– | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5,334,309 (#2) | 47.2% | 67 / 165 | – | |
| 2015[25] | 7,707,422 (#1) | 56.3% | 109 / 167 |  32 |
And that, the truth, is a latent risk because the only thing that appears until now, is the plan of the social-democratic parties united in the so-called MUD.
the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), when it was formed as the coalition of the opposition parties of Venezuela, to face the government of the late Hugo Chávez. But it has been a difficult path that has transited until now, because they converge 20 parties ranging from social democracy to liberalism
Gathered in the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), which was born in 2008 to confront President Hugo Chávez, the opposition includes center, center-left, left parties and dissidents of Chavismo
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