Democratic Centre
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Democratic Centre Centro Democrático | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Luis Martin Rodrígues |
| Secretary-General | Cristòfor Ordóñez Domenech |
| Founded | 20 June 2019 |
| Dissolved | 8 June 2020 |
| Merged into | Liberal Democratic Party |
| Ideology | Centrism Third Way |
| International affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Colors | Green |
Democratic Centre (Romance: Centro Democrático) is a centrist, "Third Way" political party in the Romance Republic.
The party was founded on 20 June 2019 by Luis Martin Rodrígues, a former member of the Romance National Party (at the time recently renamed The Republicans). The party experienced strong polling throughout its existence but proved unable to convert this momentum into electoral success.
On 8 June 2020, the party voted by 3-to-1 to dissolve and merge with the Social Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democratic Party.
History
At the time of its formation, founder Luis Martin Rodrígues was a Romance National Party deputy (Member of Parliament). When the PNR fractured in May 2019, Martin quit the party after what he termed "a drift rightward" under interim leader Martin Albert Talló who had renamed the PNR, "The Republicans".
The Democratic Centre was formally constituted on 20 June 2019, the last possible day for parties to register for the June 2019 parliamentary election. Despite some opinion polls indicating the party would enter Parliament, the party fell short of the 5% threshold to win a seat.
From November 2019, the party participated in an electoral pact with the Social Liberal Party, culminating in Martin standing as the joint CD–PSL candidate at the following month's presidential election. The pact remained in place, albeit more loosely, at the January 2020 parliamentary elections where PSL lost its single seat but CD finished third, more than tripling its vote share from the previous parliamentary election and winning 2 seats. Its 10-point vote share gain between the two elections is one of the largest on record.
On 8 June 2020, after several weeks of secret negotiations, the party voted overwhelmingly in favour of merging with the Social Liberal Party to form the centrist Liberal Democratic Party.
Political ideology
Democratic Centre was founded by Luis Martin to protest the "rightward drift" of The Republicans (formerly called the Romance National Party). As such the party was firmly centrist, supporting so-called "Third Way" politics. The party was strongly socially liberal.
Electoral performance
| Election | Leader | Vote | Seats | Position | Status in Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | ± | No. | ± | ||||
| Jun. 2019 | Luis Martin Rodrígues | 2.78% | new | 0 / 20
|
new | 6th | Extra-parliamentary |
| Jan. 2020 | 12.82% | ▲ 10.04 | 2 / 20
|
▲ 2 | ▲ 3rd | Opposition | |