National Party (Chile, 1966)
The National Party (Spanish: Partido Nacional, PN) of Chile was a Chilean political party formed by the union of the United Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and the National Action (founded in 1963 by Jorge Prat Echaurren, who had been Minister of Finances in 1954 in Carlos Ibáñez del Campo's cabinet).
National Party Partido Nacional | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President (s) | Víctor García Garzena, Sergio Onofre Jarpa, Patricio Phillips, Germán Riesco Zañartu |
| Founded | 11 May 1966 |
| Dissolved | 18 August 1994 |
| Merger of | United Conservative Party, Liberal Party and National Action |
| Merged into | Progressive Union of the Centrist Center |
| Headquarters | Santiago de Chile |
| Newspaper | Tribuna (1971–1973) |
| Ideology | Liberal nationalism Liberal conservatism Conservatism Liberalism |
| Political position | Centre-right to right-wing |
| National affiliation | Confederation of Democracy (1972–1973), Alianza (1992–1994) |
| Party flag | |
.svg.png) | |
It represented the right-wing of the Chilean political spectrum, against the centrist Christian Democratic Party and the leftist coalition Popular Unity. Its candidate Jorge Alessandri lost the 1970 presidential election. Three years later, in August 1973, after escalating political polarization, the Christian Democrats joined with the National Party in the same legislature against Allende. The following month, newly appointed chief of staff General Augusto Pinochet led the 1973 military coup against Allende, after which the National Party voluntarily dissolved itself on 21 September 1973.
The party supported the coup of 11 September 1973 and dissolved itself in the same year. Most important political leaders of the party who had held public office in times prior to the coup took important positions during the military regime.
In March 1983 former members of the National Party and its supporters formed the Civic Action Committee in order to reconstruct a unified party of the right. This process was interrupted in October 1983 when group leaders Carmen Sáenz, Silvia Alessandri and Alicia Ruiz-Tagle de Ochagavía attempted to reconstruct the National Party proper. However, despite attempts to create a unified party of the right as existed before 1973, this was not possible. Thirteen backbench MPs joined the National Party, presided over by former Senator Patricio Phillips Peñafiel. However, 20 deputies and a large number of leaders and activists of yesteryear joined the National Union Movement, a party that four years later became the National Renewal (RN), while the people linked to the Gremialismo movement founded the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and nationalist movements formed the MAN (National Action Movement) party that later became the National Advance. The PN participated in the creation of the Group of Eight, however, after poor electoral showings, it disbanded during the transition to democracy, in 1994.
Presidential candidates
The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the National Party. (Information gathered from the Archive of Chilean Elections).
- 1970: Jorge Alessandri (lost)
- 1988 plebiscite: "Yes" (lost)
- 1989: Francisco Javier Errázuriz (lost)
- 1993: Arturo Alessandri Besa (lost)