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Democratic and Social Centre (Spain)

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Political party in Spain

Democratic and Social Centre Centro Democrático y Social

Founder	Adolfo Suárez
Founded	29 July 1982 (1982-07-29)
Dissolved	c. 2012
Split from	Union of the Democratic Centre
Merged into	People's Party (majority)
Headquarters	Madrid
Youth wing	Democratic and Social Centre Youth.
Ideology	Centrism^[1] Liberalism^[2]^[3]^[4] Christian democracy^[5]
Political position	Centre^[1]^[6]^[7]
European Parliament group	Liberal Democratic and Reformist(1987–1994)
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Green, white
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

Democratic and Social Centre (Spanish:Centro Democrático y Social,CDS) was aliberal political party inSpain, founded in 1982 by formerprime minister Adolfo Suárez. The party was a member of theLiberal Democratic and Reformist Group in theEuropean Parliament and theLiberal International.^[8] In 2006, most of its remaining members merged into thePeople's Party, though a reduced faction continued the party, which won some seats in the2007 local elections.

History

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CDS was founded on 29 July 1982 byAdolfo Suárez, who had been the principal architect of thetransition to a democratic system after the death ofFrancisco Franco and served asPrime Minister of Spain from 1976 to 1981.^[8] The followers of CDS claimed that their party was the inheritor of the political legacy of theUnion of the Democratic Centre (UCD).^[8]

After resigning both as Prime Minister and party president of the UCD in January 1981, Suarez continued to struggle for control of the party machine. When he failed in his bid to regain party leadership in July 1982, he abandoned the party he had created and formed the CDS. The new centrist party fared poorly in the October general elections, gaining only two parliamentary seats.

By 1986, the party's fortunes had improved dramatically under the leadership of the former Prime Minister. In the June elections, the CDS more than tripled its share of the vote, which was 9.2 percent in 1986, compared with 2.9 percent in 1982, indicating that many who had previously voted for the UCD had transferred their support to the CDS. In the electoral campaign, Suarez had focused on his own experience as head of the government; he had criticised theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) for not fulfilling its 1982 election promises, had advocated a more independent foreign policy, and had called for economic measures that would improve the lot of the poor. This strategy enabled him to draw some votes from those who had become disillusioned with the PSOE.

In the municipal and the regional elections held in June 1987, the largest gains were made by the CDS. A poll taken at the end of 1987 revealed even stronger support for the party, and it gave Suarez a popularity rating equal to that of Gonzalez. Suarez's call for less dependence on the United States appealed to the latentanti-Americanism in the populace, and his advocacy of a greater role for the state in providing social services and in ensuring a more equitable distribution of income struck a responsive chord among the workers, who were growing increasingly impatient with Gonzalez's economic policies, which some perceived as moreconservative than expected.

Starting in 1988, the party was a member of theLiberal International (LI). Suarez was the LI's president from 1988 to 1991.^[9] On March 25, 1995, the Centrist Union (UC) was born as a federation consisting of the CDS and some liberal and green groups. Subsequently, from November 1995, the party was called UC-CDS. In October 2002, the party reverted to its original name, CDS. A party congress held in 2005 decided, under the presidency ofTeresa Gómez-Limón, to merge with the conservativePeople's Party (PP). At that point, CDS had 54 municipal councillors and around 3,000 members. The merger of CDS with the PP took place on 18 February 2006.

Revived party

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A minority faction refused to accept the merger with the PP. They were headed by the "suarista", Fabian Villalabeitia Copena and Carlos Fernandez García. They organised an extraordinary Congress, following all the steps that were needed in the Bylaws of the CDS, obtaining almost the ownership of the same ones and appearing in almost all the provinces of Spain. At that congress Villalabeitia was elected speaker with the purpose of presiding over a Congress to select a national president. Before they had met inLogroño, members of the executive committee and the Federal committee had disagreed over the merger with the PP. Initially this group called itself the Liberal Democratic Centre (Centro Democrático Liberal). However, in 2007, following a judicial review, they obtained the right to use the CDS name.^[10] In the 2007 local elections, the party received 14,000 votes and won 38 council seats. The continuing party has a youth wing, the Democratic and Social Center Youth. The principal objectives of the organisation are increasing youth participation in political, economic, and social life.^{[citation needed]}

Electoral performance

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Cortes Generales

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Election	Leading candidate	Congress			Senate			Gov.
Cortes Generales
Election	Leading candidate	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Gov.
1982	Adolfo Suárez	604,309	2.9 (#6)	2 / 350	1,748,765	3.0 (#6)	0 / 208
1986		1,861,912	9.2 (#3)	19 / 350	4,537,464	8.2 (#3)	3 / 208
1989		1,617,716	7.9 (#4)	14 / 350	4,218,268	7.6 (#4)	1 / 208
1993	Rafael Calvo Ortega	414,740	1.8 (#5)	0 / 350	1,189,877	1.8 (#5)	0 / 208	—
1996	Fernando García Fructuoso	44,771	0.2 (#15)	0 / 350	129,432	0.2 (#14)	0 / 208	—
2000	Mario Conde	23,576	0.1 (#19)	0 / 350	65,024	0.1 (#20)	0 / 208	—
2004	Teresa Gómez-Limón	34,101	0.1 (#19)	0 / 350	92,564	0.1 (#16)	0 / 208	—
2008	Carlos Fernández García	1,362	0.0 (#60)	0 / 350	341	0.0 (#107)	0 / 208	—

European Parliament

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Election	Leading candidate	Votes	%	Seats	EP Group
European Parliament
1987	Eduard Punset	1,976,093	10.3 (#3)	7 / 60	NI
1989	José Ramón Caso	1,133,429	7.1 (#3)	5 / 60	LDR
1994	Eduard Punset	183,418	1.0 (#7)	0 / 64	—
1999	José Manuel Novo	38,911	0.2 (#11)	0 / 64
2004	Teresa Gómez-Limón	11,820	0.1 (#11)	0 / 54
2009	Antonio Fidalgo	10,144	0.1 (#18)	0 / 54

Results timeline

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Year	ES	EU	AN	AR	AS	CN	CB	CM	CL	CT	CE	EX	GL	IB	RI	MD	ML	MC	NC	PV	CV
1982	2.9	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
1983				3.3	3.5	7.2	2.6	3.0	6.0			0.8		2.1	2.4	3.1		1.1		N/A	1.9
1984																				10.3
1985													3.3							10.3
1986	9.2		3.3																	3.5
1987		10.3		10.2	18.5	19.5	6.6	10.5	19.4			12.3		10.2	10.8	16.6		11.9	7.4		11.2
1988		10.3								3.8
1989	7.9	7.1											2.9
1990			1.2																	0.7
1991				3.1	6.7	14.4	2.7	3.5	8.1			5.7		2.9	4.4	3.3		5.0	2.1		3.8
1992										0.9
1993	1.8												23.7
1994		1.0	0.3																	16.8
1995			0.3	N/A	1.8	0.7	0.4	0.4	29.7	24.9	13.1	43.9		24.0	34.1	29.7	19.9	0.7	20.9		0.2
1996	0.2		0.0
1997													19.5
1998																				17.4
1999		0.2		46.0	0.1	0.5	33.1	53.4	33.1	37.9	7.4	48.5		22.0	35.3	36.4	9.4	35.9	20.3		33.9
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Year	ES	EU	AN	AR	AS	CN	CB	CM	CL	CT	CE	EX	GL	IB	RI	MD	ML	MC	NC	PV	CV
Bold indicates best result to date. To be decided Present in legislature (in opposition) Junior coalition partner Senior coalition partner

References

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^^a ^bSteed, Michael; Humphreys, Peter (1988), "Identifying liberal parties",Liberal Parties in Western Europe, Cambridge University Press, p. 426
^Haas, Melanie (2006), "Das Parteiensystem Spaniens",Die Parteiensysteme Westeuropas, VS Verlag, p. 437
^Colomer, Josep M. (2002),Political Institutions in Europe (Second ed.), Routledge, p. 176
^Thomas Banchoff; Mitchell Smith (November 12, 2012).Legitimacy and the European Union: The Contested Polity. Taylor & Francis. pp. 123–.ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2013.
^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. 255
^Montero, José Ramón (1999), "Stabilising the Democratic Order: Electoral Behaviour in Spain",Politics and Policy in Democratic Spain, Frank Cass, p. 63
^Pallarés, Francesc; Keating, Michael (2006), "Multi-level electoral competition: sub-state elections and party systems in Spain",Devolution and electoral politics, Manchester University Press, p. 99
^^a ^b ^cMaría Luz Morán (1996)."Spain". In Roger Morgan; Clare Tame (eds.).Parliaments and Parties: The European Parliament in the Political Life of Europe. Springer. p. 326.ISBN 978-1-349-24387-7.
^Roberts, Geoffrey K.; Hogwood, Patricia (2003),ThePolitics Today companion to West European politics, Manchester University Press, p. 137
^historiaelectoral.com, accessed 25 June 2010