National Renewal (Chile)

National Renewal
Renovación Nacional
Leader Cristián Monckeberg
Founded 29 April 1987
Merger of National Union Movement, Independent Democratic Union and National Labour Front
Headquarters Avenida Antonio Varas 454, Santiago, Chile
Youth wing Juventud de Renovación Nacional (JRN)
Coalition Alliance
Membership  (2009) 90.029 (4th)[1]
Ideology Conservatism,[2]
Liberal conservatism,[3]
Conservative liberalism,
Classical liberalism
Political position Centre-right[4] to Right-wing[5][6]
International affiliation International Democrat Union
Regional affiliation Union of Latin American Parties
Chamber of Deputies
19 / 120
Senate
8 / 38
Party flag
Website
www.rn.cl
Politics of Chile
Political parties
Elections

National Renewal (Spanish: Renovación Nacional, RN) is a liberal conservative[3] political party belonging to the Chilean centre-right political coalition called Alliance in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union (UDI). The party president is the deputy Cristián Monckeberg, and its principal leaders are Sebastián Piñera, former President of Chile, and Andrés Allamand, former minister of defense, former presidential candidate and Senator, and senator Manuel José Ossandón.

History

National Renewal was formed in 29 April 1987 when three rightist organizations – the National Union Movement (Movimiento de Unión Nacional MUN), the National Labour Front (Frente Nacional del Trabajo FNT), and the Independent Democratic Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente UDI) — joined together in preparation for the 1988 Plebiscite that would determine the continuity or not of rule of Augusto Pinochet who had been in power since the coup of 1973. The UDI soon broke away to run as a separate party due to its strong support for the plebiscite and a Pinochet candidacy, while the remaining National Renewal party indicated its preference for an open election or a candidate other than Pinochet. However, once Pinochet was proclaimed candidate, the overwhelming majority of National Renewal supported him.

The party was founded on 29 April with 351 founding members. In this way, National Renewal was the first political party to form in Chile after the lifting on the ban of political parties that had been established after the coup; by December of that year, 61,167 members, led by Andrés Allamand, had joined. The principal idea that the party proclaimed was to generate an environment of calm during the return of democracy. The party supported UDI candidate Joaquín Lavín as the sole Alliance candidate in the 1999/2000 presidential elections, who went on to obtain 47.5% of the votes in the first round, but was subsequently defeated in the second round by Ricardo Lagos.

During early 2005, the party initially supported Lavín to again run as the sole candidate of the Alliance in the presidential election of that year. However, in face of Lavin's declining opinion poll numbers, Sebastián Piñera announced his candidacy as the National Renewal candidate thus ensuring that the Alliance have two candidates for the election. In the first round on 11 December, Piñera obtained 25.4% of the vote, which was enough to send him to the run-off on 15 January 2006 with Michelle Bachelet. With 46.5% of the vote, Piñera was defeated by Bachelet.

In the legislative elections, also on 11 December 2005, the party won, as part of the Alliance for Chile, 20 out of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and currently holds 7 out of 38 seats in the Senate.

In the parliamentary elections, also on 13 December 2009, the party gains, as part of the Coalition for Change, 18 out of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile and currently has 8 out of 38 seats in the Senate of Chile.

In the 2010 presidential election, Sebastián Piñera was elected president of Chile.

In 2013, Andrés Allamand was presidential precandidate for primary elections, the National Renewal party supported the presidential candidacy of Evelyn Matthei for the presidential election, that lost in second round with the 37% of the votes.

In January 2014, three deputies (Karla Rubilar, Pedro Browne and Joaquín Godoy) and one senator (Lily Pérez) resigned to the party and launched a political movement called "Amplitude" (Amplitud), that aims to be a new political party inside the Alliance. In the internal elections of 2014 the party, deputy Cristián Monckeberg was elected party president. On 2 August 2014, National Renewal debuts its new logo with a blue and red star gradient colours. In August 2014 the deputy Gaspar Rivas left the party.

On November 22, 2014, on a Doctrinal Council held in Pucón, National Renewal drafted a new statement of principles where they were eliminated references to the coup d'état of September 11, 1973.

Presidents of National Renewal

National Renewal has nine party presidents in its history:

Presidential candidates

The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the National Renewal. (Information gathered from the Archive of Chilean Elections).

Party logos

See also

References

  1. ↑ Estadistica de cantidad de afiliados a partidos politicos, al 14/08/2009
  2. ↑ Arceneaux, Craig; Pion-Berlin, David (2005), Transforming Latin America: The International And Domestic Origins Of Change, University of Pittsburgh Press, p. 148
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kirby, Peadar (2003), Introduction to Latin America: Twenty-First Century Challenges, Sage, p. 157
  4. ↑ Kernic, Franz (2005), "Chile", Defense and Security: A Compendium of National Armed Forces and Security Policies (ABC-CLIO): 133
  5. ↑ Flores-Macías, Gustavo A. (2012), After Neoliberalism?: The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America, Oxford University Press, p. 153
  6. ↑ Posner, Paul W. (2008), State, Market, and Democracy in Chile: The Constraint of Popular Participation, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 114

External links

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