Puneet Varma (Editor)

Social Party of National Unity

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Leader
  
Juan Manuel Santos

Founded
  
2005 (2005)

Political position
  
Centre to Centre-right

President
  
Roy Barreras

Headquarters
  
Bogotá, Colombia

Ideology
  
Third way Social liberalism Liberalism Uribism (formerly)

The Social Party of National Unity (Spanish: Partido Social de Unidad Nacional), or Party of the U (Spanish: Partido de «la U») is a political party in Colombia. The Party is led by President Juan Manuel Santos. Currently, it is Colombia's largest political party and has formed a coalition with the Radical Change and the Liberal Party.

Contents

History

The Party was formed in 2005 with the objective of uniting various congressional supporters of President Alvaro Uribe, also known as Uribistas into one political and provide a political platform for the 2006 Colombian Presidential Elections. Most of it's members defected from the Colombian Liberal Party, yet it failed to unite all Uribistas: in particular the Radical Change (Cambio Radical) didn't join.

In 2006, the party took part in the parliamentary elections of 2006, in which it won 30 out of 166 deputies and 20 out of 100 senators. 3 years later, more than half of the congressmen from the Radical Change Party switched to Party of the U, this resulted in it becoming Colombia's largest political party.

For 2010 presidential elections, Party of the U chose former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos as presidential candidate and Governor Angelino Garzon as vicepresidential candidate. Juan Manuel Santos was elected with 69% of the vote in the runoff. The Party also obtained 27 seats in the Senate in the 2010 congressional elections.

In 2012, the Uribistas and former President Alvaro Uribe along with Francisco Santos Calderon decided to form their own separate party the Democratic Center. This was the result of high level from former President Alvaro Uribe towards his former Defence Minister and Presidential successor Juan Manuel Santos. The announcement of peace negotiations with the FARC and the Colombian Government was one of the key factors that led to the fragmentation. Nevertheless the party did not suffer high level defections towards the Democratic Center.

In 2014, President Juan Manuel Santos was re-elected for a second term, in a close race with former Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga of the Democratic Center.

The party is yet to officially announce it's plans for 2018, but it is expected to form an electoral alliance with the Liberal Party.

Ideological platform

The Programatic Declaration (Declaración Programática) is the official ideological platform of the party.

  • The Social Party of National Unity supports the development of the welfare state and recognises the family as the base of society.
  • The Party supports the implementation of a market based economy.
  • It promotes globalisation, emphasising education, science and technology as key pillars that can help Colombia succeed in a global market.
  • The Party supports decentralisation and more autonomy of the regions. Currently, the Caribbean Region is the first to begin the process to obtain more autonomy.
  • President Santos has also claimed that he supports Tony Blair's Third Way approach.

    • Since 2012, the party has been an observer member of the Liberal International.

    References

    Social Party of National Unity Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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