Democratic Unity Roundtable
Mesa de la Unidad Democrática |
|
---|---|
Secretary-General | Jesús "Chúo" Torrealba |
Founded | 23 January 2008 |
Ideology | Anti-Chavism Big tent |
Political position | Centre |
Colors |
(Venezuelan national colors) Blue primarily |
Seats in the National Assembly |
112 / 167
|
Seats in the Latin American Parliament |
8 / 12
|
Governors |
3 / 23
|
Mayors |
81 / 337
|
Website | |
unidadvenezuela.org/ | |
The Democratic Unity Roundtable (Spanish: Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD) is a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2010. A previous opposition umbrella group, the Coordinadora Democrática, had collapsed after the failure of the Venezuelan recall referendum, 2004.
The coalition includes centrist, centre-left, left-wing and centre-right parties. The main components are Democratic Action and Copei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999.
In the 2015 parliamentary election, the coalition became the largest group in the National Assembly with 112 out of 167 (a supermajority), ending sixteen years of PSUV rule of the country's unicameral parliament.
The MUD was formally launched on 23 January 2008 and restructured on 8 June 2009. In June 2009 MUD included 11 political parties, and was led by Luis Ignacio Planas, President of Copei. By April 2010 the MUD included around 50 political parties, of which 16 were national in scope (the rest regional), and had support from some other social organisations and opinion groups. The main parties included in MUD are Democratic Action and Copei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999; the dissenting left-wing parties Movement for Socialism, Radical Cause and Red Flag Party; and more recently established parties Project Venezuela, A New Era, Justice First and For Social Democracy ("PODEMOS").