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Independent Democrat Union
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The Independent Democrat Union is a Chilean conservative political party. Its current president is Juan Antonio Coloma. UDI and National Renewal (RN) form a coalition of right-wing parties called Alianza por Chile (Alliance for Chile), which rose to power in March 2010 after the victory in the presidential elections held in January 2010. It is currently the largest political party in Congress. The origin of this party was primarily brought about by the need to legitimate and create a political structure to similar to one instated by the administration of Augusto Pinochet.
The party nominated Las Condes mayor Joaquin Lavin as their candidate in the 1999 presidential election. Lavin obtained second place (47.5%) in the election, but was defeated in a runoff by Ricardo Lagos. Lavin ran again in the 2005 presidential election but did not make it to the runoff, securing only 23% of the vote.
As of the most recent parliamentary election on December 11, 2005, UDI members hold 9 seats in the Senate and 33 in the house. Since the 2001 elections, UDI has been the largest opposition party as well as the largest single party in Congress.
History
It was during the university strikes of 1967 and 1968 when Jaime Guzman, President of the Student Center of the School of Laws of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, who was against the protests and the strikes led by the Student Federation ruled by the Christian Democratic Youth, and a supporter of the gremialismo doctrine, gathered a group of students and formed the Movimiento Gremial (Brotherhood Movement) and participated in the elections of the Student Federation of his university.
The movement quickly became one of the most important in the Catholic University, winning the presidency of the Federation, and became the core of the student opposition to President Salvador Allende's government. Guzman supported a military coup against Allende's government, which happened shortly thereafter on September 11, 1973 . He was a close advisor of General Augusto Pinochet.
In 1980, Guzman participated in a committee summoned by Pinochet to write a new Constitution. The final edited draft became the Constitution of 1980, which is still in force, though with major alternations by the subsequent Concertacion governments.
Guzman crafted the current Two-round system, which assigns two congressional seats per district to the top two coalitions unless the first coalition gets twice as many votes, making it very difficult for single party to secure a firm majority in the legislature. This system is controversial in Chile and is often labeled anti-democratic.
In 1987, when Pinochet re-legalized political parties, Jaime Guzman and his followers registered their organization, Nueva Democracia ("New Democracy"), as the Independent Democrat Union, and participated in the plebiscite of 1988, supporting Pinochet. UDI announced that if the No were to win, "the terror and horrors of the years of Allende's government would return and Chile would fall into chaos."
After the "Yes" option was defeated and presidential elections were announced, the UDI joined National Renewal and formed the "Democracy and Progress" alliance (Democracia y Progreso). Hernan Buchi, the former Minister of Finances under Pinochet, ran for president for this alliance. The alliance also ran a common Parliament list. The UDI's option lost the 1989 presidential election, this time against the center-left Concertacion's leader, the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin.
However, in the congressional elections, Jaime Guzman won a seat as Senator for Santiago, Chile, due to the binomial system. He was actually in third place, behind Christian Democrat Andres Zaldivar and Party for Democracy leader Ricardo Lagos. The Concertacion's combined vote total was less than twice that of Democracy and Progress', so the seats went to Zaldivar and Guzman. The opposition to the binomial system uses this as an example of its unfairness.
In 1991, Jaime Guzman was assassinated by members of the armed left-wing group Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez), after leaving his lecture of Constitutional Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He was replaced as senator by the National Renewal candidate for the same jurisdiction, Miguel Otero.
In 1993, after the political earthquake of a scandal known as "Pineragate", that made it impossible for National Renewal to launch a presidential candidate, the right-wing alliance (now known as Participation and Progress) chose as candidate the independent Arturo Alessandri Besa, a grandson of former President Arturo Alessandri Palma (1920-1925 and 1932-1938), and once again they lost, this time against the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, son of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva (19641970).
In 1998, when Pinochet was arrested in London, the UDI and National Renewal pressed the Frei government to return him to Chile.
In 1999, the UDI presidential candidate of the popular mayor of Las Condes, Joaquin Lavin. This time, they had to face the Socialist candidate Ricardo Lagos. In the first round, no candididate won the necessary 50% of the vote, so Lagos and Lavin had to go to a runoff, for the first time since the return to civilian rule. In the runoff, Lagos defeated Lavin by just 187,000 votes (2.6%).
In the 2001 parliamentary elections, the UDI won the largest number of seats in Congress, replacing the Christian Democrats. However, in the 2004 municipal elections, the UDI fared less well, losing many mayors and counselors.
In 2005, they selected Joaquin Lavin for presidential elections again, but National Renewal launched another candidate, the millionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera. Attempts to choose a single candidate for the right failed. Pinera defeated Lavin in the election, and there was a runoff between Pinera and the Concertacion candidate, Michelle Bachelet. Lavin urged his supporters to vote for Pinera, whom he endorsed wholeheartedly. However, in the 2006 runoff, Pinera was defeated by Bachelet. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the UDI maintained their status as largest party in Congress.
Ideology
The UDI is positioned in the right-wing of the Chilean political sprectrum. Their ideology combines the support for a liberal economy, with a minor participation of the State, with a conservative agenda in social issues. They are against abortion, gay marriage, divorce and contraception. They defend most of the work of Pinochet during his government, such as the binomial system, the previsional system (Chile has a private system of social security), private health and education boom and until the 2005, the "authoritarian parts" of the Constitution (which were derogated in a Constitutional Reform).
However, although the party was formed under the wing of Pinochet, and their leader Jaime Guzman, assassinated 1991 by left wing extremists, was one of his most devoted supporters, the UDI started to move away from his figure, and decided to create an image of a "Popular Party", working intensively in the neighborhoods and the poorest districts.
They were the harshest critics of the left-wing government coalition in power until 2010, the Concertacion. From the election of 1998, ideas about what the party should be, have turned into a social approach.
In 1991, the same year their leader was assassinated, the UDI held their first doctrine congress in Punta de Tralca however the meeting was only attended by 50 delegates.
During the congress the party established the following Declaration of Principles:
Declaration of Principles
Person, Family, Society and State.
Tradition, Nationality and Political Action.
Principle of Subsidiarity and Free Society.
Basic Rights and Security.
Individual Creation and Everyday Rights
Women in Society.
Youth and National Destiny.
Political Regime.
Core Values Adhesion, Political Pluralism and its Limits.
Rejection of Totalitarianism.
A New Face of Marxism.
Legal and Terrorism.
Honesty, technical modernization and efficiency in public functions.
Mission of the Armed Forces.
Socio-Economic System.
The Welfare State in the socio-economic environment.
Cooperation, Social Harmony and Solidarity.
Private enterprise, Legitimacy and Structure.
Dignifying Employment.
Labour Regime
Decentralization, Regionalization and Participation.
Depoliticized Intermediate Bodies, Guilds ("Gremialismo") and Areas of Neutrality.
Freedom and Demassification of the Individual.
External links
Official web site
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Independent Democrat Union
