Regionalist Party of Cantabria

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Cantabrian Regionalist Party
Leader	Miguel Ángel Revilla Roiz
Founded	1978
Headquarters	Santander
Political ideology	Regionalist Centrist
International affiliation
Website	Official Site

The Regionalist Party of Cantabria (Partido Regionalista de Cantabria, PRC), is the second oldest political party in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria. The PRC originated in the Association in Defense of the Interests of Cantabria (ADIC), founded on May 14, 1976, with the objective of promoting the Cantabrian autonomy.

The PRC was officially formed on November 10, 1978, under the leadership of Miguel Ángel Revilla Roiz, Manuel Izquierdo Nozal, Jose Luis Oria Toribio, Eduardo Obregón Barreda, and Juan Jose García González. Months later, in 1979, the PRC participated for the first time in general elections, presenting candidacy to the Senate, and on April 3 of that same year went to the municipal elections with a clear goal: to obtain the representatives necessary to demand from the city councils the autonomy for Cantabria.

The first Regional Congress of the party took place on December 8 and December 9, 1979 in Puente Viesgo, where the General Statutes, an ideological communication, another one about municipal inteventions and a third one about agrarian policy, in addition to a project of Statute of Autonomy of Cantabria[1] were approved.

The following Congress came in 1982 and then Eduardo Obregón Barreda was chosen General Secretary. On May 8, 1983, on the occasion of the regional and municipal elections, the PRC accedes to the Parliament of Cantabria with two deputies and obtained 63 councilmen.

In 1985, Eduardo Obregón Barreda revalidates his position of Secretary General in III the Regional Congress and two years later, on June 10, 1987, the PRC increases his institutional representation, obtaining 5 deputies in the Parliament of Cantabria and 102 councilmen in the different city councils of the region. That same day European elections took place, where the party obtained 14.553 votes.

In the IV Regional Congress, on March 20, 1988, Miguel Ángel Revilla accedes for the first time to the General Secretariat, that has occupied uninterruptedly since then, with the ratification of the successive congresses, celebrated on November 9, 1991, on November 13, 1994, on November 8, 1998 and on November 17, 2002.

30 April 1988, was another important date in the trajectory of the PRC, due to its participation as an observer in a work group of regionalist parties in Valencia. The group planned a joint project and to present an united candidacy to the European elections of the following year.

This work group included Navarrese People's Union, Aragonese Party, Valencian Union, Progressive Riojan Party, Majorcan Union, United Extremadura and United City of Melilla, in addition to the Regionalist Party of Cantabria, who was integrated , in June, as a member more of the platform and a year later stood for the elections to European Parliament, comprising the candidacy of the Federation of Regionalist Parties (FPR). From then, the relations have been constant between the different regionalist parties that exist in Spain.

The following autonomic and municipal electoral appointment, on May 26, 1991, supposed the PRC to keep its representation in the Parliament of Cantabria, with two deputies, and in the different municipalities, with a total of 69 councilmen. These results were widely broken in the following elections: on May 28, 1995, with 88 councilmen and 6 seats, that allowed the access of the party, for the first time in their history, to the Government of Cantabria, occupying the Vice-presidency and Councils of Public Works, Culture and Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

The elections held on 13 June 1999 resulted in a new advance in the regionalist institutional representation. The PRC maintained its 6 deputies in the Parliament of Cantabria and increased its presence in the municipalities up to 213 councilmen, including 23 were mayors. The electoral results advised to reedit the pact of government of the previous legislature, in agreement with a fundamental commitment for the PRC: the immediate construction of Freeway Cantabria-Plateau in order to end the secular isolation of Cantabria in its communications with the center of Spain.

In the last autonomic elections, celebrated on May 25, 2003, the PRC was the party that underwent a greater growth in number of votes, exactly a 60 percent more than in the previous elections of 1999, and the only one that its parliamentary representation increased, rising from 6 to 8 seats.

Later, on June 5, 2003, the Regionalist Party subscribed a Pact of Coalition with Spanish Socialist Workers Party for legislature 2003-2007, being chosen its General Secretary , Miguel Ángel Revilla Roiz, President of the Government of Cantabria.