Union, Progress and Democracy
Union, Progress and Democracy is a Spanish political party founded in September 2007. It is a social-liberal party that rejects any form of nationalism, especially the separatist Basque and Catalan movements. The party is deeply pro-European and wants the European Union to adopt a federal system without overlap between the European, national and regional governments. Besides, the magenta party wants to replace the State of Autonomies with a symmetric and highly centralized, albeit still federal, system in Spain as well as substituting a more proportional election law for the current one.
Mikel Buesa, at a 2007 party presentation, and Rosa Díez, in a 2007 interview for a magazine, explained the origin of the three concepts which make up the party's name: Union, because of their "unconditional defence of the union of Spain as a necessary condition for all Spaniards' equality before the law". Progress, because they affirm to be "a progressive party respectful of individual freedom". And Democracy, on account of their "commitment to radical regeneration of democracy". Rosa Díez, Fernando Savater, Carlos Martínez Gorriarán and Juan Luis Fabo took charge of the choice of the party's name and the party's inscription into the Register of Political Parties. They opted for Union, Progress and Democracy, in the words of Rosa Díez, "because it was necessary a party that did the necessary democratic pedagogy and defended those three concepts unashamedly in Spain. Because, indeed, there is an urgent need for union between Spaniards, there is an urgent need for progressive policies and there is still a long way to go before achieving a quality democracy".
UPyD first stood for election in the 9 March 2008 general election. It received 303,246 votes, or 1.2 percent of the national total, and one seat in the Congress of Deputies for party co-founder Rosa Díez, becoming the newest party with national representation in Spain. Although its core is in the Basque Autonomous Community, with roots in anti-ETA civic associations, it addresses a national audience. Prominent members of the party include philosopher Fernando Savater, party founder and former PSOE MEP Rosa Díez, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán and writer Álvaro Pombo.
At its Second Party Congress in November 2013, UPyD reported 6,165 registered members. In 2009 the party founded the think tank Fundación Progreso y Democracia, which has been presided over by UPyD spokesperson Rosa Díez.
In the general elections held on 20 November 2011, the party won 1,143,225 votes, five seats in the Congress of Deputies and became the fourth-largest political force in the country. It had the greatest increase of votes over the previous general election of any party. In the 2015 general election, however, it suffered a decline in its vote power by losing all of its seats. In the 2016 general election, it dropped to just 0.2% of the national vote.
Origins
On 19 May 2007, 45 people met in San Sebastián to discuss the creation of a new political party opposing both major parties at the national level. Most present were Basques, many of whom had long experience in political, union and civic organizations with left-wing, liberal and activist backgrounds. After the meeting, to create a broad-based social and political project they formed the Plataforma Pro organization. This united those who considered it necessary to form a new national political party appealing to people across the democratic political spectrum. Its platform was:- The fight against ETA and politically motivated violence
- Regeneration of Spanish democracy
- Opposition to compulsory nationalism
- Reforming the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to reinforce civil liberties and equality, independent of regional origin
, UPyD council member in Catalonia and president of Citizens of Catalonia
At a 29 September 2007 meeting in the auditorium of the Casa de Campo in Madrid, the new party was formed. Participants in its formation included Catalan dramatist Albert Boadella, Basque philosopher Fernando Savater, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and Rosa Díez. Also present were journalist Arcadi Espada, anthropologists Teresa Giménez Barbat and Felix Perez Romera, historian Antonio Elorza, painter Agustín Ibarrola, former Forum Ermua leader Mikel Buesa, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, Citizens deputies Albert Rivera and Antonio Robles, Peruvian writer Fernando Iwasaki, former UGT secretary general Nicolas Redondo and People's Party Basque MP Fernando Maura. Maura joined the new party's advisory council on 6 November 2007. Writer Álvaro Pombo later expressed support for UPyD, running as a candidate for the party.
Ideology
Official stance
Ideologically, UPyD is not defined by itself as either left or right and its constituency includes voters with an affinity for the political right as well as part of the Socialist Party's disenchanted voters. When UPyD is asked to be placed on the left–right political spectrum, it defines itself as "a progressive party that is simultaneously positioned on the political centre and cross-sectionalism, thus embracing ideas across the political spectrum". According to spokesperson Rosa Díez, the party is "progressive and cross-sectional: it's got leftist people and right-wing, liberal people". Other additional identity signs are the following: "constitutionalism", defining it as the upholding of the Spanish state of law through the pursuance of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in the regions in which is violated and non-nationalist citizens are discriminated against and, concurrently, through a modification of instrumental articles of the Constitution to ensure that its non-negotiable articles—those that proclaim freedom, equality, cohesion, separation of powers and protection of all Spanish citizens under an independent justice—become effective; "secularism", defining it as the defence of state neutrality towards religious beliefs, with the exception of Islam and any other religion that isn't respectful of human rights and the Spanish legal system, and also towards the belief of those who don't embrace a faith; "liberal democracy", defining it as the form of government which best balances power and individual rights; "pro-Europeanism", defining it as the desire to move towards a real European federalism with the concept of citizenship as a fundamental pillar; "Spanish patriotism", defining it as the defence of common values—justice, freedom and equality—and loyalty among fellow countrymen; and "non-nationalism", defining it as the opposition to compulsory nationalism. Rosa Díez defined UPyD, in opposition to Spain's peripheral nationalist and pro-independence parties, as "an unequivocally national party, with a unique agenda for Spain". According to Rosa Díez, "social liberalism" is the political doctrine which UPyD is identified with because the party combines elements of "political liberalism" and "social democracy". Furthermore, Rosa Díez said that UPyD is "a radical party which wants to transform politics by bringing off substantial, in-depth changes from within institutions". Also, Miguel Zarranz, UPyD's coordinator in Navarre, has clarified that UPyD is "a partially centralist party because it wants to centralize powers such as education, health, water resource management or transport management within a symmetric, cooperative federal state with other decentralized responsibilities in the autonomous communities". Lastly, Álvaro Anchuelo commented that UPyD is "a monarchist party insofar as the monarchy of Spain fulfils its function and is an austere, transparent and exemplary monarchy".Outside sources
UPyD has been assessed by the vast majority of political scientists and the media such as the European Social Survey, The Financial Times and The Economist as a centrist party, even though it was considered as centre-left by the political scientist Donatella Maria Viola and centre-right by the Encyclopædia Britannica. Also, the self-proclaimed cross-sectionalism of UPyD has been linked to radical centrism.UPyD is a progressive party which combines social liberalism with centralism from the centre of the political spectrum. UPyD is a centralist party which stands out for being the only statewide party that actively defends the abolition of chartered regimes in all Spain, even in those regions which have them: Navarre and the Basque Country. Similarly, UPyD argues that the extreme political decentralization of the State of Autonomies has weakened the welfare state and created inequalities across the territory. Accordingly, UPyD wants to adopt a symmetric, strongly centralized federalism in Spain.
UPyD wholeheartedly defends the unity of Spain, thereby being an enemy of peripheral nationalism and the existence of several national identities within Spain. The magenta party advocates for the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation so unconditionally that it supports the application of Article 155 of Spain's Constitution so as to suspend Catalonia's home rule, and the prosecution of Catalan separatist leaders for rebellion and sedition. Although UPyD is a progressive party strongly characterized by its rejection of peripheral nationalism, it also has objections to nation-state nationalism, including Spanish nationalism, because the party considers this kind of nationalism to be a threat to the progress of Europe's unity. UPyD is the most pro-European party in Spain and therefore supports a federal Europe, which the magenta party sees as an important guarantor of individual rights.
Criticism
Political scientist Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, postulated that UPyD aims to combat "Basque and Catalan nationalism with a good dose of Spanish nationalism but not with arguments". He reproached them to identify the State of Law, which is neutral in terms of territorial organization of power, with equal rights throughout the state. He also criticized its commitment to an electoral law that "prevents peripheral nationalist parties from having a significant presence in the Spanish Parliament" because, to his mind, fighting against nationalism with institutional reforms would mean "sacrificing the most essential elements of our democracy". Sánchez-Cuenca concluded by stating that "the ideology of UPyD seems clearly broken".Although UPyD claims to be a social liberal party that rejects any form of nationalism, the party has been branded as a Spanish nationalist one, as well as by Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, by the journalist Javier Ortiz, by some writers such as Mónica Dorange, José Ramón Montero and Ignacio Lago and Jean-Pierre Cabestan and Aleksandar Pavković and by the scholarly association European Consortium for Political Research. This may be because UPyD has defended common positions with Spanish nationalism like the fact of denying the existence of differentiated nations in the state by stating that "the Spanish nation is the only nation that exists in Spain", the recovery by law of place names in Spanish of provinces, cities, municipalities and geographic features in the autonomous communities with co-official language, the amendment of the Spanish Constitution so that there isn't any distinction between nationalities and regions and Gibraltar's restitution to Spanish sovereignty.
Also, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero criticized UPyD because, in his opinion, centralism has caused even more inequality than the current autonomic state and he pointed out that equality shouldn't be confused with uniformity.
The PP's member Ignacio González, despite admitting his agreement on issues such as the anti-terrorist policy and territorial integrity, has placed UPyD on the far-left of the political spectrum. Gotzone Mora, who requested the vote for the PP after belonging to the PSE-EE, said that UPyD's ideas are already defended by the PP and she accused UPyD of being a PSOE's submarine.
Policies
Fundamental proposals
- Reform of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, focusing on three areas:
- * Doing away with the Spanish autonomic state. UPyD wants Spain to adopt a system of symmetric federalism with broad political centralization as a territorial model, clearly defining in the Constitution which powers are exclusive of the State and which ones are transferable to autonomous communities or municipalities. The party wants to centralize competences that concern citizens' fundamental rights like education, health, justice and fiscal policy among others because the State of Autonomies is considered to be "elephantine, politically unviable and economically unsustainable as well as creating nationwide inequalities". Another aspect of UPyD's symmetric federalism is the abolition of Navarre's and the Basque Country's chartered regimes, establishing a common system of funding for all autonomous communities. Other noteworthy proposals are municipal mergers so that municipalities have a minimum dimension of 20,000 inhabitants, the suppression of the provincial councils, chartered councils, Basque General Assemblies and district councils, and the unicameralism of the Spanish General Courts after eliminating the Senate.
- * Improvement and reinforcement of individual rights and obligations, strictly defined for all Spanish citizens without territorial, linguistic, ideological or religious inequalities. By advocating a unitary and centralizing concept of the Spanish nation, UPyD defends the unity of Spain as "a key instrument to ensure the equality of the whole of the Spanish citizenry".
- * Deepening of the separation of powers, increasing judicial autonomy to ensure the independence of the Constitutional Court, the Court of Accounts and economic regulatory bodies from the executive.
- By turning Spain into a secular state, the party supports a revision of existing agreements with the Holy See, the self-financing of the Catholic Church and other religious confessions and the total separation of church and state. Secularity for UPyD consists in "ensuring fair treatment of all legitimate religious beliefs, that is, compatible with human rights, the state of law and democracy". UPyD puts forward that "Islam isn't a legitimate religion because it imposes man's primacy over woman, because it doesn't even respect the possibility of being a nonbeliever and, above all, because of its rejection of the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is the contributory factor to an own declaration of human rights that justifies the existence of practices such as adulterous women's stoning and homosexuals' murder through sharia". Following this line of thought, the party supports the banning of Islamic headscarves in public spaces because they are considered to be "a way to subjugate women to men within Islam".
- Reform of the Organic Act of the General Electoral Regime with 3 hopes: achieving voters' equality, regardless of residence; increasing the minority-party representation, underrepresented with today's electoral system compared to the majority-party one; and reducing regionalist and peripheral nationalist parties' representation. This reform raises biproportional apportionment of 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies. Of the 350 MPs, one would be elected from each province and one from each autonomous city for a total of 52 and the remaining 298 MPs would be elected by provinces, redeployed in proportion to the population, using the Sainte-Laguë method. But, the allocation of seats to parties would be based on the votes obtained in the 52 constituencies so that a party which has fewer votes than another can't receive more seats than that one. Firstly, the value of r-parameter, equivalent to 0.25% of the total valid votes, would be calculated. Secondly, r votes would be subtracted from those parties which have passed r votes, getting the reduced votes for each party; however, parties that hadn't reached r votes would be removed from the allocation of seats. Thirdly, using the D'Hondt method, 325 seats would be allocated proportionally to the reduced votes while the remaining 25 would be assigned according to the square of the reduced ones so as to achieve equity in parties' representation and compatible proportionality and governance. Finally, BAZI computer program, developed at the University of Augsburg, would be used to distribute the seats won by each party in the 52 constituencies.
- Improvements in education, establishing a secular public education system in which scientific investigation is strengthened and language discrimination is eradicated. UPyD vituperates against compulsory language immersion in autonomous communities with more than one official language, thereby defending the freedom to choose the language in the enrolment of all nonlinguistic subjects and ensuring bilingualism by being the study of not only the Spanish language but also the regional language compulsory. The party opposes language discrimination in all public services.
- Changes in the democratic system: eliminating the requirement of collecting 0.1 percent of constituencies' electorate for extra-parliamentary parties to run in the election, the enactment of an open-list panachage system, the direct election of mayors in a two-round system preventing post-election agreements misrepresenting the citizens' will, a limit of two successive full terms for executive public officeholders, banning the combination of two public offices and reducing former high officeholders' conflicts of interest. The party suggests making political parties' funding more transparent, increasing their independence from economic interests.
- Measures to tackle terrorism that put emphasis on defeating ETA, closing its funding channels and blocking its political justification. Consequently, UPyD wants to toughen the law on parties in order to outlaw the political parties which form part of the EH Bildu coalition because they're considered to be ETA's political arm. The magenta party puts forward that these parties don't condemn ETA's terrorism and even justify ETA's killings, for example, calling ETA's imprisoned members "jailed politicians".
- Economic and social measures promoting economic development and correcting inequalities. The state should improve workers' education, training and safety, integrate internal markets with infrastructure, favour research and innovation in business and guarantee economic freedom and competition.
- Regarding immigration, UPyD wish to transfer immigration policy to the European Union as an exclusive competence. Therefore, the magenta party asks the European Commission for the inclusion of Ceuta and Melilla in the European customs area as full-fledged territories and, hence, external borders of the European Union. So, UPyD wants Frontex to open delegations in both cities and bolster the Smart Borders Plan. The party supports the creation of a European green card allowing legal immigrants to have a joint residence and work permit in the European Union. UPyD states that controlled immigration is good and necessary for Europe because of its demographic ageing and advocates a common immigration policy strictly respectful of international law and human rights that, as well as entailing the admission and stay criteria for immigrants according to the EU's employment needs as a whole, entails a European action protocol to keep illegal immigration at bay. On the one hand, the magenta party supports greater immigration control by arguing that the Ceuta and Melilla border fences must be protected. UPyD believes that the Civil Guard should stop illegal immigrants and legally repatriate them or return them to the country which they entered from without violating their human rights, thereby rejecting pushbacks and banning the firing of rubber bullets and the use of razor wires as deterrents. On the other hand, the party stands up for giving asylum and humanitarian protection to displaced people outside their countries owing to armed conflicts and, consequently, defends applying dissuasive sanctions against EU member states which refuse to accept refugees. Likewise, UPyD is favourable to earmark financial resources for promoting democracy in countries where there is no democracy and even to intervene militarily if financial resources are "insufficient for defending and protecting human rights and thus no one has to leave those countries". Finally, the magenta party thinks that there doesn't have to be any discrimination against a type of immigration in the acceptance of immigrants or refugees in Europe.
- Environmental policy which makes technological and economic development compatible with environmental and biodiversity protection. Some measures are the following: nuclear power as the essential part of the energy mix that, together with renewable energy and hydraulic fracturing, Spain should have, the cessation of subsidies for coal mining and closure of cost-inefficient mining sites, the scientific research of climate change and its possible corrective measures, and a toughening of laws on the protection of natural areas by opposing the loss of coastline and sensitive natural areas due to urbanization and other misuses.
- An abortion law decriminalizing induced abortion due to intimate reasons until a fourteen-week, or slightly greater, time period. The definitive time limit would be established by a medical-scientific consensus based on the early detection of possible malformations. Beyond that gestational limit, UPyD would only allow abortion "in cases of the foetus's nonviability and risk of the mother's death with the aim of reconciling the mother's right to a consenting maternity with the unborn's legal protection". To the party's mind, an embryo conceived by two people is already a human being and, hence, abortion is always "a drama". That is why UPyD puts forward that the regulation of abortion as a right, instead of its decriminalization under certain circumstances, is incompatible with Article 15 of the Spanish Constitution, which applies to the unborn according to the Constitutional Court's jurisprudence. Therefore, the magenta party supports an early sex education within secondary education giving students information about all available contraceptive methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies and, simultaneously, fostering the notion that abortion has to be avoided as much as possible. Finally, UPyD opposes abortion access by minors without parental consent.
Other proposals
- In relation to bullfighting, UPyD supports bullfights as the national bullfighting festival and demands that the bullfighting regulation be an exclusive competence of the State to prevent bullfighting traditions from being suppressed by the autonomous communities. Nevertheless, UPyD is against giving grants-in-aid to bullfighting events either at the Spanish level or the European one, thereby asking the Spanish society to decide the future of bullfights with its attendance or non-attendance to the bullrings and disagreeing with the declaration of bullfighting as cultural heritage. Lastly, it's worth saying that UPyD is in favour of the abolition of the Toro de la Vega tournament and bull with fireballs.
- Creation of a political constitution for the European Union in which some powers like energy policy, fiscal policy, foreign policy, immigration or security and defence are transferred from the EU member countries to the European Parliament to build a federal Europe whose institutions have full legislative capacity and are under complete democratic control. Similarly, UPyD is in favour of the elimination of the intergovernmental European Council to promote the European Union's supranationality. In addition, the magenta party is committed to the abolition of the European Parliament's headquarters in Luxembourg and Strasbourg by concentrating all its parliamentary activity in a single headquarters in Brussels.
- Unconditional approval of concrete budgeting provisions for reinforcing the human and material resources of the Spanish security forces and intelligence services to fight against Islamic terrorism in good condition. Moreover, UPyD supports a military intervention in Syria within a European resolution under the protection of the United Nations in order to annihilate the Islamic State.
- Reform of Spanish Penal Code to impose revisable indefinite imprisonment for crimes of the utmost gravity, previously submitting this issue to a consultative referendum. Exemption from sentence or parole may be agreed when a minimum of 35 years have gone by if the prisoner gets a favourable, individualized prognosis of social reintegration in a penalty review process.
- Besides supporting same-sex marriage, the party favours adoption of children by same-sex couples because "the marginalization due to sexual orientation is absolutely reprehensible". UPyD puts forward that classical, traditional family isn't the only model of family and the child's right to have any sort of family must prevail.
- Regulation of altruistic surrogacy: UPyD is an advocate for the regulation of exclusively altruistic surrogacy, setting up an invariable compensating relief chargeable to the surrogate parent or parents for the full benefit of the surrogate woman by law. A surrogacy agreement, irreversible for filiation purposes, may only be entered into when the surrogate parent or parents have exhausted or are incompatible with other assisted human reproduction techniques. The surrogate woman couldn't provide her own genetic material and, therefore, couldn't ever contest the child or children's sonship. The surrogate woman would have to be over 18 years old, have a good psychophysical health and full capacity to act, have had a healthy child before, have a stable socioeconomic situation and have resided during the two years preceding the signing of the surrogacy agreement in Spain.
- Regulation of voluntary prostitution so that men and women can practice it with full legal security, with the necessary sanitary and hygiene guarantees and with the same rights and obligations as any worker. The regulatory framework for voluntary prostitution has to include the necessary measures for preventing this activity from causing conflicts in neighbourhoods and cities.
- Legalization of euthanasia. UPyD supports regulating passive and active euthanasia through a national public registry of living wills to close the door on people who want to dispose of one's life, either in medical field or familiar field. UPyD also favours assisted suicide, thereby ensuring terminally ill people the possibility of being helped to end their lives.
- By considering that cannabis isn't more dangerous for health than alcoholic beverages and tobacco, UPyD stands up for the decriminalization of production, trading and consumption of cannabis derivatives. However, the magenta party would keep the outlawing of the other illegal drugs.
- Attribution of the competence to assess compliance with the requirements for the qualification of a company as a SICAV to the Department of Financial and Tax Inspection of the Spanish Tax Agency by issuing a binding report to the National Securities Market Commission to prevent individuals and family groups, who fraudulently benefit from the tax privileges granted to SICAVs, from using SICAVs as an investment vehicle.
Funding
Elections
The party's national spokesperson, Rosa Díez, won a seat in the general election of 2008 from Madrid Province with 3.74 percent of the vote. Other prominent candidates were writer Álvaro Pombo and Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, both of whom failed to win seats.In 2009, the party gained representation in the European Parliamentary election and the Basque Regional Elections. Their MEP, Francisco Sosa Wagner, sat in the non-aligned group in the European parliament. In the Basque elections, Gorka Maneiro was elected to represent Álava.
In 2011, Luis de Velasco Rami and 7 other UPyD members were elected to the Madrid Assembly, with UPyD becoming the fourth-largest party. In the 2011 local elections, the party won seats in Madrid, Burgos, Ávila, Granada, Alicante and Murcia. UPyD received the fourth-largest number of votes in the 2011 general election: 1,143,225, or 4.70 percent. Of the five seats won, four were in Madrid; actor Toni Cantó was elected in Valencia Province.
In the 2014 European Parliament Elections, Francisco Sosa Wagner was re-elected, and UPyD won three extra seats, consolidating their support nationwide. The party's MEPs planned to join the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group.