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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Partido Nacional'', PN) was a Chilean

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area'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. For example, while the political systems ...

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. E ...

's cabinet). It represented the right-wing of the Chilean

political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...

, 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 either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

coalition Popular Unity. Its candidate

Jorge Alessandri Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 26th 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 A ...

lost the 1970 presidential election. Three years later, in August 1973, after escalating

political polarization Political polarization (spelled ''polarisation'' in British English, Australian English, and New Zealand English) is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes. Scholars distinguish between ideologi ...

, 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 military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

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 t ...

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, law professor and senator Jaime Guzmán, a civilian a ...

(UDI) and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

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

National Advance National Advance (, 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 founded on 11 Septembe ...

. 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 structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what ...

, 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 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

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

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

: Francisco Javier Errázuriz (lost) *

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

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 el ...

(lost)

References

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