People's Party (Panama)
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People's Party
Partido Popular |
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| President | Milton Henríquez |
| Founded | 1956 (AD) 1957 (UCN) i1960 (PDCP) 2001 (PP) |
| Headquarters | María building 2 y 3 floor, Perú avenue front to Plaza Porras. Panama City, Panama |
| Ideology | Christian democracy |
| Political position | Centre to Centre-right |
| Regional affiliation | Christian Democratic Organization of America |
| International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International |
| Colours | Blue |
| Seats in the National Assembly |
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The People's Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, until 2001 the Christian Democratic Party of Panama) is a Panamanian Christian democratic political party. It was one of Latin America's most conservative and anti-communist Christian democratic parties. The ideological foundation of the party is based on the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.
The Christian Democratic Party was created in 1960. The PDC emerged from a movement at the National University of Panama inspired by European Christian Democracy. It was known from 1957 to 1960 as the National Civic Union (UCN). The PDC's leading figures were middle-class professionals, intellectuals and students, but support also came from the trade union.
The PDC traces its origins to the “First Week of Christian Studies,” which met at Cumbres in March 1957. Those participating in this session and the “Second Week of Christian Studies” in July 1959 included intellectuals, who in one field or another expressed their desire for Social Christian action. The group that organized these meetings was organized on 12 April 1956, and first called itself Social Democratic Action (Accion Social Democrata, ASD) and its leaders met in 1957 under the name Christian Democratic Movement (Movimiento Democrata Cristiano, MDC). The Partido Democrata Cristiano was finally launched at a congress early in 1964.
The trade union group known as the Federation of Christian Workers (Federation de Trabajadores Cristianos), established in 1961, was closely aligned with the PDC.
For the 1964 elections, the PDC presented its first presidential candidate, José Antonio Molino, who was supported by Panama's Teachers Union, he received 9,681 votes (2.98%), coming in fourth among seven nominees.
That was considered a success for the new party and was enough to assure its registration as a legal party. In the succeeding years the Christian Democrats continued to be a small but well-organized element in Panamanian politics.
In 1968 general election, the PDC candidate, Antonio González Revilla, received 11,371 votes (3.55%). In 1964 and 1968 the PDC won one parliamentary seat.
In 1968 the radical wing of the leadership was expelled en masse, as the increasingly right-wing party supported the government of Arnulfo Arias. It was backed by a tiny electorate consisting of urban professionals and a business group led by the Romero family. Arias chose a PDC as minister of education, but his government lasted only 11 days.
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