The Democratic Pact for Catalonia ( ca, Pacte Democràtic per Catalunya, PDC or PDpC) was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...

established in May 1977 ahead of the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

15 June election. It ran on a political platform emphasizing the need of approving a statute of autonomy for Catalonia. The coalition comprised members from two separate, previously established alliances: Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and

Democratic Left of Catalonia Democratic Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Democràtica de Catalunya, EDC) was a political party in Catalonia (Spain). EDC was founded in 1975 as the Catalan Liberal Party ( ca, Partit Liberal Català), and ideologically it defined itself as " rad ...

(EDC) from the Democratic Front for Catalonia ( ca, Front Democràtic per Catalunya, FDC), and the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Regrouping (PSC–R) and the

National Front of Catalonia The National Front of Catalonia (Catalan: ''Front Nacional de Catalunya'', FNC) was a Catalan separatist party which was active between 1940 and 1990. The FNC was created in 1940 by former members of the Estat Català and the Catalan Nationalis ...

(FNC) from the Left Front ( ca, Front d'Esquerres, FdE). It obtained 514,647 votes (16.88% of the vote in Catalonia, 2.81% of the votes in Spain) and 11 deputies, of which 5 were for CDC, 4 for PSC–R and 2 for EDC. Its leader was

Jordi Pujol Jordi Pujol Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003. Early life Pujol was ...

. Shortly after the election, the coalition dissolved, as the PSC–R joined the

Catalan Federation of the PSOE Catalan Federation of the PSOE or Catalan Socialist Federation ( ca, Federació Catalana del PSOE, FSC) was a political party in Catalonia, Spain. The FSC first groups emerged between 1880 and 1882. History In 1888, the FSC promoted the creation ...

and the

Socialist Party of Catalonia–Congress Socialist Party of Catalonia–Congress ( ca, Partit Socialista de Catalunya–Congrés, PSC–C) was a political party in Catalonia, Spain. PSC–C was founded in 1976 as a continuation of Socialist Convergence of Catalonia (CSC). It also unified ...

to form the

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC–PSOE official acronym) is a social-democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia� ...

(PSC), while CDC (into which EDC was merged in 1978) joined with

Democratic Union of Catalonia The Democratic Union of Catalonia ( ca, Unió Democràtica de Catalunya; , UDC), frequently shortened as Union ( ca, Unió; ), was a regionalist, Christian-democratic political party in the Catalonia region of Spain existing between 1931 and 2017 ...

(UDC) to form

Convergence and Union Convergence and Union ( ca, Convergència i Unió, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller coun ...

(CiU).

History

The alliance had its origins in an electoral platform formed in October 1976 by the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Regrouping (PSC–R), initially attracting the interest of

(EDC) and

Republican Left of Catalonia The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a Catalan independence movement, pro-Catalan independence, social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Catalonia, p ...

(ERC), to promote a "Left Front" ahead of the upcoming legislative election in Spain, inviting parties from the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

and

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...

, such as Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) or the Socialist Convergence of Catalonia (CSC)—the latter of which would merge with other parties and organizations into the

(PSC–C) in November that year—to join it. EDC disengaged from the platform in December 1976 and reached an electoral alliance with

's CDC instead, whereas the Left Front was joined by the

(FNC) and Catalan State (EC) and formally constituted as an electoral coalition on 11 March 1977. The PSC–C rejected joining the Front, on the grounds that their two political projects "absolutely diverged, in terms of motivations and goals", exploring instead an electoral alliance with the

for the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, as well as the Agreement of the Catalans unitary coalition for the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Throughout the subsequent weeks, contacts would be maintained with other parties for a possible expansion of the Front to the entire Catalan democratic and socialist left—and into a "Socialist and Democratic Bloc of Catalonia" ( ca, Bloc Socialista y Democrátic de Catalunya)—but this came at the risk of compromising the Front's internal cohesion. Amid these expansion attempts, CDC's Jordi Pujol sought to incorporate the PSC–R, ERC and

(UDC) into his "Democratic Front for Catalonia" alliance with EDC in order to establish a Catalanist bloc as broader as possible. While UDC was favourable to entering a coalition with CDC, it did not want to foregone its agreement with the Catalan Centre, the

Union of the Centre and Christian Democracy of Catalonia Union of the Centre and Christian Democracy of Catalonia ( ca, Unió del Centre i la Democràcia Cristiana de Catalunya, UCiDCC) was an electoral coalition formed in Catalonia in December 1976 to contest the Spanish Congress of Deputies election ...

(UCiDCC), and saw the proposal as absent of a larger degree of programatic concretion; EDC fully supported Pujol's proposal, whereas ERC and the PSC–R were initially only willing to consider alliances within the umbrella of their Left Front, as long as they respected their "Catalan Solidarity" proposal of post-election joint political action. By late April, chances of UDC joining the CDC–EDC "Democratic Front" vanished after the former stuck to its UCiDCC alliance with the Catalan Centre, but negotiations continued between Pujol's alliance and the parties comprising the Left Front, resulting in the breakup of the latter and in the PSC–C and the FNC joining the CDC–EDC's coalition, rebranded as the "Democratic Pact for Catalonia", for the Congress of Deputies election. whereas ERC and EC were left out from the candidacy. A preliminary agreement had also been reached with the Social Democratic Party of Catalonia (PSDC), but it failed to materialize as the PSDC would attempt an alliance with the

People's Party of Catalonia The People's Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Popular de Catalunya, es, Partido Popular de Cataluña, PP or PPC) is a conservative, Christian-democratic political party in Catalonia. It is the Catalan affiliate of the Spanish People's Party an ...

(PPC) and into the Union of the Democratic Centre in Catalonia (UCD).

Composition

Electoral performance

Congress of Deputies

Nationwide

Regional breakdown

References

{{reflist 1977 establishments in Spain 1978 disestablishments in Spain Defunct political party alliances in Spain Defunct political parties in Catalonia Political parties established in 1977 Political parties disestablished in 1978