Abbreviation PDeCAT Secretary Marta Pascal | President Artur Mas Founded 10 July 2016 | |
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Preceded by Democratic Convergence of Catalonia Headquarters C/Provença, 339
08037 Barcelona | ||
The Catalan European Democratic Party (Catalan: Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català, PDeCAT), or just the Catalan Democratic Party, is a Catalan nationalist party which supports the independence of Catalonia from Spain. It was founded in Barcelona on 10 July 2016, as the successor to the now-defunct Democratic Convergence of Catalonia.
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History
Led by its president, Artur Mas, on July 8, 2016 Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC by its Catalan acronym) held its last congress. During the congress, as planned, CDC's members agreed to form a new party, whose founding congress was held in the course of the same assembly, from 8 to 10 July. CDC's Mas retained the presidential role in the refounded party.
The reasoning behind the re-branding process often mentions the desire to disassociate the party from its corruption problems, including those of CDC's founder, Jordi Pujol, which occurred during its dominance of Catalan regional politics.
Naming controversy
Two names for the rebranded party were initially floated: Més Catalunya and Catalans Convergents, but different party factions expressed their rejection of both proposals. On 9 July, three other proposals were presented: Junts per Catalunya, Partit Demòcrata Català and Partit Nacional Català. On July 10, the congress of the party opted for Partit Demòcrata Català, which obtained 871 votes against 657 for Partit Nacional Català (Catalan National Party).
However, the name itself Partit Demòcrata Català is currently suspended, since it is almost identical with that of an existing political party. The Ministry of the Interior announced the difficulty of registering the party with that name, being similar to Democrats of Catalonia, a fact that has already caused the inability to register in 2015 a political organisation with the name Partit Demòcrata de Catalunya. Antoni Castellà, Democrats of Catalonia spokesman, said in August that "if the PDC does not change its brand that will be a conflict within Junts pel Sí", the Catalan coalition government formed by his party and CDC, among others. On September 20 the party announced that it will attempt to register the name Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català (Catalan European Democratic Party, PDECat), which also would conflict by presenting similarity with the Partit Català d'Europa recorded by Pasqual Maragall in July 1998; however, the party also registered the names Partit Nacional Català, Junts per Catalunya, Més-Catalunya and Pacte Democràtic Català in case the PDCat also be rejected by the Ministry of the Interior.
On 3 October 2016, the Ministry of the Interior announced that the name Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català had been officially registered on 29 September. That name was ratified by the party members in a ballot conducted on 21-22 October 2016.