President Mónica Xavier Newspaper Voces del Frente | Founded February 5, 1971 | |
 | ||
Headquarters Colonia 1367, Montevideo, Uruguay Ideology Democratic socialism
Social democracy Political position Centre-left to Left-wing | ||
The Broad Front (Spanish: Frente Amplio, FA) is a Uruguayan centre-left to left-wing coalition of political parties. Frente Amplio has close ties with PIT-CNT trade union and the cooperative housing movement. It has been the governing party of Uruguay since 2004; Presidents Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica are members of the party.
Contents
History
Frente Amplio was founded as a coalition of more than a dozen fractured leftist parties and movements in 1971. The first president of the front and its first candidate for the presidency of the country was General Liber Seregni. The front was declared illegal during 1973 military coup d'état of and emerged again in 1984 when democracy was restored in Uruguay.
In 1994 Progressive Encounter (Encuentro Progresista) was formed by several minor independent factions and the Frente Amplio. EP and FA started contesting elections jointly under the name Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio. Later another force, Nuevo Espacio, became linked to the front. Thus it started contesting elections as Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio - Nueva Mayoria.
In 2005 member organizations of Progressive Encounter and New Majority (essentially Nuevo Espacio) merged into the front, and the coalition took the name of the larger force, Frente Amplio. Previously, EP and later NM had been allied with FA but organizationally separate structures.
At the 2004 general election, the party won 51.7% of the popular vote and 52 out of 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 out of 31 in the Senate, while its presidential candidate, Tabaré Vázquez, won the presidential election. The Front retained its majority and the presidency in the 2009 election with José Mujica elected as president.
The alliance is - as far as available - formed by:
Splits
Along its history, despite the fact of constantly attracting political factions from other parties, the Broad Front suffered some splits as well:
Ideology
The Broad Front consists primarily of progressive political parties. However, in government it has tended to follow policies favouring a market economy with expanded social programs. Not all the parties in the Broad Front can be considered left-wing, indeed some lean towards fiscal conservatism or social conservatism. Uruguay Assembly of Danilo Astori can be considered a centrist party and Astori has followed fiscal conservative policies as finance minister, whereas the Christian Democratic Party is vocally opposed to abortion. Tabaré Vázquez during his presidency maintained his pro-life stance, in contrast to the stance of many in his own Socialist Party, leading him to leave his positions in the party.
Results in the 2004 internal elections
In 2004 the first internal elections for EP-FA-NM was held. Previously elections had only been held within FA.