About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Radical Civic Union

Encyclopedia : R : RA : RAD : Radical Civic Union

The Radical Civic Union (in Spanish, Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International.

The Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) is the oldest existing political party in Argentina. It was founded in 1891 by radical liberals and held power for 27 years. For many years the party was either in opposition to Peronist governments or illegal during military rule.

The party was a spin-off of the Civic Union, which was led by Bartolomé Mitre and Leandro Alem The party unsuccessfully led an attempt to force the early departure of President Miguel Juárez Celman in the Revolución del Parque. Eventually a compromise was reached with Juárez Celman's government. Hard-liners who opposed this agreement founded the current UCR. With the introduction of free, fair and secret elections based on universal suffrage in 1912 the Party manage to win the general elections of 1916, when Hipólito Yrigoyen became president.

Between 1983 and 1989 its leader, Raúl Alfonsín, was the first democratically elected president after the military dictatorship headed by generals such as Jorge Videla, Leopoldo Galtieri and Reynaldo Bignone. Alfonsín was succeeded by Carlos Menem of the Peronist Justicialist Party (PJ).

In 1997 the UCR participated in elections in coalition with Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO), itself an alliance of many smaller parties. This strategy brought Fernando de la Rúa to the presidency in the 1999 elections. During major riots triggered by economic reforms implemented by the UCR government (with the advice of the International Monetary Fund), President de la Rúa resigned and fled the country to prevent further turmoil. After three consecutive acting presidents assumed duties in the following weeks, Eduardo Duhalde of the PJ took office until new elections could be held.

After the 2001 legislative elections it became the second largest party in the federal Chamber of Deputies, winning 71 of 257 seats. It campaigned in an alliance with the smaller, more leftist FREPASO. The party has subsequently declined markedly and its candidate for President in 2003 gained just 2.34% of the vote, beaten by three Peronists and more seriously, by two former radicals, Ricardo López Murphy of Recrear and Elisa Carrió of ARI, who have leached members, support and profile from the UCR. In the 2005 legislative elections, the UCR was reduced to 35 deputies and 13 senators, but remains the second force in Argentine politics.

The UCR is now riven by an internal dispute between those who support the broadly left-wing policies of Peronist President Néstor Kirchner led by five provincial governors and who support Kirchner's re-election in 2007, and those who want to back a UCR candidate or a candidate from another movement, most likely Roberto Lavagna or Elisa Carrió. The latter faction is led by Party President Roberto Iglesias and former leader Raúl Alfonsín.

Leaders of the UCR

The Party is headed by a National Committee; its President is the de facto leader of the party. A national convention brings together representatives of the provincial parties and affiliated organisations such as Franja Morada and Radical Youth, and is itself represented on the National Committee.

Presidents of the National Committee

_________

See also

Radical Civic Union Coat of Arms
Enlarge
Radical Civic Union Coat of Arms

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: