The National Party ( Spanish: ''Partido Nacional'', PN) was a Chilean

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

formed in 1966 by the union of the

United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party. ...

, the Liberal Party and the National Action (founded in 1963 by Jorge Prat Echaurren, who had been Minister of Finances in 1954 in Carlos Ibáñez del Campo's cabinet). It represented the right-wing of the Chilean political spectrum, against the centrist Christian Democratic Party and the

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

coalition Popular Unity. Its candidate

Jorge Alessandri Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 27th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador All ...

lost the 1970 presidential election. Three years later, in August 1973, after escalating political polarization, the Christian Democrats joined with the National Party in the same legislature against Allende. The following month, newly appointed chief of staff General Augusto Pinochet led the 1973 military coup against Allende, after which the National Party voluntarily dissolved itself on 21 September 1973. The party supported the coup of 11 September 1973 and dissolved itself in the same year. In March 1983 former members of the National Party and its supporters formed the Civic Action Committee in order to reconstruct a unified party of the right. This process was interrupted in October 1983 when group leaders Carmen Sáenz, Silvia Alessandri and Alicia Ruiz-Tagle de Ochagavía attempted to reconstruct the National Party proper. However, despite attempts to create a unified party of the right as existed before 1973, this was not possible. Thirteen

backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

MPs joined the National Party, presided over by former Senator Patricio Phillips Peñafiel. However, 20 deputies and a large number of leaders and activists of yesteryear joined the

National Union Movement The National Union Movement ( es, link=no, Movimiento de Unión Nacional, MUN) was a Chilean political party that supported the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, founded on 27 November 1983 by Andrés Allamand, Francisco Bulne ...

, a party that four years later became the National Renewal (RN), while the people linked to the Gremialismo movement founded the

Independent Democratic Union The Independent Democratic Union (''Unión Demócrata Independiente'', UDI) is a conservative and right-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1983. Its founder was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán, a civilian allied with A ...

(UDI) and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

movements formed the MAN ( National Action Movement) party that later became the

National Advance National Advance ( es, Avanzada Nacional, AN) was a Chilean far-right political party of nationalist ideology who supported the military regime led by Augusto Pinochet. They had party legal existence between January 1988 and July 1991. It was f ...

. The PN participated in the creation of the Group of Eight, however, after poor electoral showings, it disbanded during the

transition to democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

, in 1994.

Presidential candidates

The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the National Party. (Information gathered from th
Archive of Chilean Elections
. *

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

(lost) *1988 plebiscite: "Yes" (lost) *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

: Francisco Javier Errázuriz (lost) *

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

Arturo Alessandri Besa Arturo Alessandri Besa (31 October 1923 – 13 July 2022) was a Chilean lawyer and politician. Alessandri was member of his country's Chamber of Deputies and also of the Senate; he also was candidate for the presidency of Chile in the 1993 ele ...

(lost)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Party (Chile, 1966-1994) Political parties established in 1966 Political parties disestablished in 1994 Liberal conservative parties Defunct political parties in Chile 1966 establishments in Chile 1994 disestablishments in Chile