Democracy and Freedom ( ca, Democràcia i Llibertat, DiL) was an

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 parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

established to contest the

2015 Spanish general election The 2015 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 December 2015, to elect the 11th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. At exac ...

. It was formed by

Democratic Convergence of Catalonia The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia ( ca, Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya; , CDC), frequently shortened as Convergence ( ca, Convergència; ) was a Catalan nationalist, liberal political party in Catalonia (Spain), currently still exis ...

(CDC),

Democrats of Catalonia Democrats of Catalonia ( ca, Demòcrates de Catalunya, DC) is a Christian-democratic, pro-Catalan independence political party in Catalonia founded in July 2015 from a split in Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC). Its members included the then ...

(DC) and

Reagrupament Reagrupament or Reagrupament Independentista (''Realignment for Independence'' or ''Independence Rally'') is an association in Catalonia, Spain, formally constituted on 3 October 2009. It is an umbrella group for various supporters of Catalan in ...

(RI.cat).

History

After the

2015 Catalan regional election The 2015 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 27 September 2015, electing the 11th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This was the third regional Catalan election i ...

had seen

(CDC) and

Republican Left of Catalonia The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a pro-Catalan independence, social-democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also ...

(ERC) teaming up into the

Junts pel Sí Junts pel Sí (; en, "Together for Yes", sometimes translated as "Together for the Yes"; JxSí) was a Catalan electoral, political and parliamentary alliance focused on achieving the independence of Catalonia from Spain. Established ahead of t ...

alliance, speculation arose on the future of such alliance for other electoral contests and on whether it would be maintained ahead of the upcoming

scheduled for 20 December under a "super-creative formula". On 30 October 2015, it was confirmed that they both parties would be standing in separate lists but with "shared manifestos", as ERC's refusal to accept regional presidency minister and government spokesperson Francesc Homs as the leading candidate as well as CDC's aims to control the future parliamentary group put down any prospects of a full-fledged electoral alliance. On 4 November, it was unveiled that CDC was in talks with

(DC) to form a joint list for the general election. On 6 November 2015, the alliance was made public and announced to include CDC, DC and

(RI.cat) under the "Democracy and Freedom" label, with Francesc Homs as its leading candidate. The party memberships of both CDC and DC ratified the decision with a support of 84% and 78%, respectively. On 9 May 2016, CDC announced its intention to contest the 2016 Spanish general election on its own, choosing not to renew the alliance with DC and RI.cat, thus bringing the coalition to an end. DC and RI.cat subsequently decided not to contest the general election, citing the failure in building up a "broad alliance" of pro-independence parties as their main reason.

Composition

Electoral performance

Cortes Generales

Nationwide

Regional breakdown

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2015 establishments in Catalonia 2016 disestablishments in Catalonia Catalan independence movement Defunct political party alliances in Spain Defunct political parties in Catalonia Political parties established in 2015 Political parties disestablished in 2016