Union of the Democratic Centre Unión del Centro Democrático | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | UCD, UCeDé |
| President | Andrés Passamonti |
| Secretary-General | Luis Cendra |
| Founder | Álvaro Alsogaray |
| Founded | August 1982; 43 years ago (1982-08) |
| Headquarters | Buenos Aires |
| Youth wing | Juventud UCeDé |
| Membership(2017) |  18,390[1][2] |
| Ideology | Conservatism[3][4] Economic liberalism[3][4] Social market economy[5] |
| Political position | Centre-right[6] toright-wing[7][8] |
| Colours | Blue,white |
| Chamber of Deputies | 0 / 257 |
| Senate | 0 / 72 |
| Buenos Aires Legislature | 0 / 60 |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| ucede | |
TheUnion of the Democratic Centre (Spanish:Unión del Centro Democrático, UCD[4] orUCeDé) is acentre-right[6] toright-wing[7][8]conservative andeconomically liberalpolitical party inArgentina. It was founded in 1982 byÁlvaro Alsogaray who unsuccessfully ran in the1983 and1989 presidential elections, and represented theconservative elite,technocrats,[4] andclassical liberals.[8]
As of October 2020 the party doesn't count with legal recognition nationwide.[9]
The leader of the party,Álvaro Alsogaray, was a national deputy for theCity of Buenos Aires for sixteen consecutive years, between 1983 and 1999. In 1983 and 1989 he was a candidate for the presidency, and then appointed ad hoc presidential advisor toCarlos Menem.
By 1989, the UceDé had emerged as the third political force nationwide, after the traditional major parties: theJusticialist Party (PJ) and theRadical Civic Union (UCR).Carlos Menem, an exponent of the growing pro-market wing within the formerlyPeronist PJ, won the election of 1989. UCeDé concluded an alliance with the Justicialist-led administration which had only a narrow majority in the Chamber of Deputies and gave important support to its policies of privatization and liberal economic reforms.[6] Alsogaray, who had been an opponent of traditional Peronism, became the administration's chief policy advisor[4][10] and his daughterMaría Julia secretary of natural resources and the main responsible for the privatization of the public telecommunications companyENTel.[10] In the subsequent presidential election, the UCeDé endorsedCarlos Menem.
In 2007, UCeDe participated in theUnion PROcentre-right alliance to dispute the governorship of theprovince of Buenos Aires, supporting the opposition formulaFrancisco de Narváez-Jorge Macri.Union PRO finished in third place, with 14.96% of the votes. The coalition would also last for the 2009 legislative elections, where the party also supported the candidacy ofFrancisco de Narváez as national deputy. Narvaez was 34% winner, beating former PresidentNestor Kirchner.
In 2011, he participated in theFederal Commitment Alliance supporting the presidential formulaAlberto Rodríguez Saá-José María Vernet.
In March 2015, the UCeDé of theCity of Buenos Aires established an electoral alliance with theRepublican Proposal (PRO) and supportedHoracio Rodríguez Larreta for Head of Government in the election of that same year. Later, the UCeDé of theProvince of Buenos Aires decided to join theCambiemos alliance and supportedMaría Eugenia Vidal forGovernor of Buenos Aires in the election of that same year. For many years, UCeDé supported the center-right Peronist,José Manuel de la Sota in theProvince of Córdoba, but in 2015 he joined Juntos by Córdoba and won second place led by the radicalOscar Aguad.
For the 2019 presidential elections, he managed to reshape 5 districts necessary to obtain national status and decided to join theFrente Despertar, led by economistJosé Luis Espert, who finished in the last position with 1.5% of the votes.
| Election year | Candidate | Coalition | 1st round | 2nd round | Result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | |||||
| 1983 | Álvaro Alsogaray | National Centre Confederation | 60,271 (7th) | 0.40 | — |  N Defeated | ||
| 1989 | Centre Alliance | 1,093,398 (3rd) | 23.04[citation needed] | — | ||||
| 1995 | Carlos Menem | — | 456,594[a] | 2.62 | — |  Y1-R Elected | ||
| 1999 | Eduardo Duhalde | Justicialist Concertation for Change | 562,674[b] | 2.97 | — | N 1-R Defeated | ||
| 2003 | Carlos Menem | Front for Loyalty | 4,741,202 (1st) | 24.45 | Withdrew candidacy | |||
| 2007 | Alberto Rodríguez Saá | Justice, Unity and Liberty | 1,459,174 (4th) | 7.64 | — | |||
| 2011 | Federal Commitment | 1,749,971 (4th) | 7.80 | — | ||||
| 2015 | Mauricio Macri | Cambiemos | 8,601,063 (2nd) | 34.15 | 12,997,937 | 51.34 | Y2-R Elected | |
| 2019 | José Luis Espert | Frente Despertar | 394,206 (6th) | 1.47 | — | N 1-R Defeated | ||
