President Cristina Coto Split from People's Party | Founded 19 January 2011 Newspaper El Hormiguero | |
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Secretary-General Francisco Álvarez Cascos Youth wing Foro Joven (Young Forum) | ||
The Asturias Forum (FAC) (Spanish: Foro Asturias) is a regionalist political party in the Principality of Asturias.
History
Asturias Forum was founded in January 2011 by former Deputy Prime Minister Francisco Álvarez Cascos, who left the People's Party (PP) after failing to be selected as the party's candidate for President of Asturias in the 2011 election.
In the Asturian election, Álvarez Cascos led the party under the name "Citizens' Forum" (Spanish: Foro de Ciudadanos). FAC won sixteen seats, making it the largest party on the General Council. Together with the PP, FAC's gains gave the centre-right a majority in Asturias for the first time. The party has spoken to all three other parties to create a more consensual political climate.
At the November 2011 Spanish election, the party won one of Asturias's eight seats in the Congress of Deputies.
After months of deadlock in the Asturian regional assembly, fresh elections were held, in which FAC lost 4 seats, becoming the second largest party behind the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
On February 12, 2015, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos surprisingly announced he would not stand again as Asturias Forum's candidate and resigned to the presidency of the party. Álvarez-Cascos was succeeded by Cristina Coto, while he went on to become the party's secretary-general.