The National Party (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: ''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
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
and the
National Action (founded in 1963 by
Jorge Prat Echaurren, who had been Minister of Finances in 1954 in
Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (; 3 November 1877 – 28 April 1960) was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as President twice, first between 1927 and 1931, and then from 1952 to 1958, serving for 10 years in office.
T ...
's cabinet).
It represented the right-wing of the Chilean
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
, against the centrist
Christian Democratic Party
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
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
Political polarization (spelled ''polarisation'' in British English) is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes.
Most discussions of polarization in political science consider polarization in the c ...
, 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
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
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, 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 ...
:
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)
*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 e ...
(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