Democratic Union of Catalonia

Democratic Union of Catalonia
Unió Democràtica de Catalunya
AbbreviationUDC, unio.cat
Founded7 November 1931 (1931-11-07)
Registered3 March 1977 (1977-03-03)
Dissolved24 March 2017 (2017-03-24)
Succeeded byUnited to Advance
HeadquartersC/ Nàpols, 35-39
08018, Barcelona
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right
National affiliation
European affiliationEuropean People's Party
European Parliament groupEuropean People's Party
International affiliationCentrist Democrat International
Colors  Blue
  White
Website
www.unio.cat

The Democratic Union of Catalonia (Catalan: Unió Democràtica de Catalunya; IPA: [uniˈo ðəmuˈkɾatikə ðə kətəˈluɲə], UDC), frequently shortened as Union (Catalan: Unió; IPA: [uniˈo]), was a regionalist, Christian-democratic political party in the Catalonia region of Spain existing between 1931 and 2017.[1] Together with Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), they formed the Convergence and Union (CiU) alliance and federation from 1978 until its dissolution in 2015, under which they would rule the government of Catalonia for almost three decades during the recent Spanish democratic period.

It described itself as Catalan nationalist and Christian-democratic and was a member of the European People's Party (EPP). It advocated for centrist and moderate Catalanism without explicitly renouncing independence, aiming for the constitution of a confederal state in Spain made up of sovereign entities (including Catalonia) that could become independent but rejecting unilateralism as a viable political philosophy.

After the breakup of CiU, a party split that took away half of its membership,[2] and UDC's failure in securing parliamentary representation in the 2015 Catalan and Spanish general elections, the party's mounting debts brought it to bankruptcy, leading to its dissolution on 24 March 2017.[3][4]

  1. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2015). "Catalonia/Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. ^ "¿Dónde están los restos de CiU?". Gara (in Spanish). 11 November 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Unió inicia el proceso de liquidación de partido". El Mundo (in Spanish). 24 March 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Unió afronta su disolución tras 86 años de actividad política". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 24 March 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2020.