Unió Valenciana
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Unió Valenciana
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| Leader | Jose Manuel Miralles |
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| Founded | November 1980 |
| Headquarters | C/ Maluquer, 1, 2 Valencia |
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| Ideology | blaverism ; centrism ; conservatism ; federalism |
| International affiliation | None |
| European Parliament Group | None |
| Official colours | Blue, Orange |
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| Website www.uniovalenciana.org |
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Unió Valenciana/Unión Valenciana, UV ("Valencian Union" in Valencian and Spanish language respectively) is a regionalist political party in the Valencian Community, Spain.
Currently the party is not represented in the Valencian autonomous parliament for it scored 0.95% of the total votes in the relative 2007 elections, well below the 5% threshold for representation[1]. The party does have a number of councillors on several local councils, obtaining its best results in the Valencia province.
The party is closely associated with the tendency known in Spain as Blaverismo which claims that Valencian language is different from the Catalan language and opposes the concept of Països Catalans and Catalan nationalism in the Valencian Community. The party also holds right-wing stances on issues such as economics. It has often formed an electoral alliance with the larger right wing Partido Popular (PP).
[edit] Early years and prime (1980-1991)
It was formed in 1980 with the stated purpose of "defending Valencian identity" and ran for the first time in the Spanish general election, 1982; it did so integrated in the larger Spain-wide right-wing block Alianza Popular. This coalition was kept for the 1983 elections to the Valencian autonomous Parliament.
Later on, UV took part by itself in the Spanish general election, 1986 winning an MP at the Cortes Generales for its founder and alma mater with a flare for bombast, Vicente González Lizondo. This success marked the beginning of an upward trend for the party, which, in 1987, spectacularly entered the Valencian regional Parliament or Corts Valencianes with 6 MPs (out of a total 89 MPs in the Parliament back then). It then doubled its presence at the Spain wide Parliament by winning two MPs at the Spanish Cortes in 1989.
UV reached its height in the Valencian regional elections of 1991, when it became the third largest party in the Valencian Community, overtaking the traditional third party in the territory (Esquerra Unida del País Valencià). This election elevated UV to its all time record, 10.5% of the total votes[2], with this figure remarkably higher in its electoral stronghold, the Valencian speaking areas in the Valencia province.
| UV's MPs in the Valencian autonomous Parliament | |||
| Constituency / Year | 1987 | 1991 | 1995 |
| Alicante | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Castellón | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Valencia | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 6 | 7 | 5 |
[edit] Death of González Lizondo and decline (1995-to date)
The turning point of UV's history took place in the regional elections of 1995. At those elections, UV achieved 7.1%[3] of the total votes and fell back to fourth place among the parties with representation in the regional parliament or Corts Valencianes. But, despite having had remarkably worse results than those of their high point in 1991, UV gained an unprecedented influence at the center of the Valencian political scene, because the results of this election deprived the social democratic PSOE of an absolute majority. The new situation allowed both opposition parties, Partido Popular (PP) which was short of a majority and UV (who were fourth in terms of MPs) to agree on a coalition government to oust the PSOE from regional rule after the latter had served 12 consecutive years in office.
From 1995 through to the next regional elections in 1999, a rising PP manoeuvered to ideologically absorb its smaller government partner UV. At the same time, the party received a fatal blow when its founder and charismatic leader, Vicente González Lizondo, died in 1997 after suffering a heart attack while on duty at the Corts[4]. With UV being primarily based on a reactive idea such as blaverism rather than on a consistent ideological set of policies, the loss of its charismatic founder and leader was a setback from which it has not recovered.
Also during these years, a number of medium and prominent UV ranks[5] defected from the party and joined the PP.
Then, in 1999 –at the following elections after UV's support had been crucial in forming a government– the party suffered a serious blow when its vote share of 4.76% (down from 7.1%) was just short of the 5% threshold necessary to win seats at the Corts. In those elections, the PP, which had received the lion's share of former UV votes, achieved an absolute majority in the Corts, thus completing its electoral strategy for hegemony in the Valencian Community.
UV's vote share further declined in the 2003 and 2007 regional elections. For the Spanish general election, 2004 the party revived its electoral pact with the Partido Popular and obtained a seat in the Spanish Senate held by José María Chiquillo.
Simultaneously, UV was plagued by a number of schisms of small groups of members who left to form their own parties such as Opció Nacionalista Valenciana, Unió de Progrés per la Comunitat Valenciana, Iniciativa de Progrés per la Comunitat Valenciana, Identidad del Reino de Valencia, Renovació Valencianista or Partido Regional de la Comunidad Valenciana. Some of these, given their very small numbers, have either been readmitted in UV or, alternatively, have joined the PP. The rest went on to form Coalició Valenciana, a party assuming the staunch rightwing image which UV has tried to depart from during the 2000s. Coalició Valenciana reached 0.72% of the total votes at the 2007 regional elections, well below the 5% threshold to enter the regional parliament, but a narrow gap when compared to UV's own 0.95%.
Following acriminious internal elections, Chiquillo quit the party and went on to join the PP, thus generating a severe internal crisis which has weakened the party still further. Joaquín Ballester Sanz, a councillor for the town of Paterna succeeded Chiquillo as the Party leader. At the end of April 2006, Ballester Sanz resigned and at the leadership election in May the mayor of Náquera, José Manuel Miralles became the new leader.
At the most recent Valencian elections, UV achieved 0.95% of the total votes[6]. The party has announced that it will not run –neither by itself, nor repeating an electoral pact with the PP– for the upcoming Spanish general election, 2008. This decision has been dubbed by its proponents as "hard, but necessary for UVs survival as a political party"; the party also said it is conducting an internal restructuring with the aim of being in a better shape for the 2011 regional election.[7]
