Popular Alliance (Spain)
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People's Alliance
Alianza Popular |
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|---|---|
.svg) |
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| Abbreviation | AP |
| President | Manuel Fraga |
| Secretary-General | Francisco Álvarez-Cascos |
| Founder | Manuel Fraga |
| Founded | 9 February 1976 |
| Dissolved | 20 January 1989 |
| Merger of |
Democratic Reform Union of the Spanish People Spanish Democratic Action Social Democracy Regional Action Social People's Union Spanish National Union |
| Succeeded by | People's Party |
| Headquarters | Calle Silva, 23 - 28004 Madrid |
| Youth wing | New Generations of People's Alliance |
| Ideology |
Conservatism Post-Francoism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
| European Parliament group | European Democrats |
| Colors | Yellow and Red |
The People's Alliance (Spanish: Alianza Popular [aˈljanθa popuˈlar], AP [aˈpe]) was a post-Francoist electoral coalition, and later a conservative political party, in Spain, founded in 1976 by Manuel Fraga along with six other former Francoist ministers. It was the major opposition party in the 1980s, as the leading conservative right-wing party in Spain. It was refounded as the People's Party in 1989.
The AP was originally led by Manuel Fraga, who had helped to prepare the way for reform during the Franco era and who had expected to play a key role in post-Franco governments. He underestimated the popular desire for change and distaste for Francoism, and he advocated an extremely gradual transition to democracy. Although Fraga intended to portray the AP as a mainstream conservative party, the large number of former Francoists in his party resulted in it being perceived by the electorate as both reactionary and authoritarian.
Fraga's own outbursts of temper and the close ties of many of the AP candidates to the previous regime contributed to this perception. When elections were held in June 1977, the AP garnered 8.3% of the vote.
In the months following the 1977 elections, dissension erupted within the AP over constitutional issues that arose as the draft document was being formulated. The more reactionary members voted against the draft constitution, and they advocated a shift to the right. Fraga, however, wanted to move the AP toward the political center in order to form a larger center-right party. Most of the disenchanted reactionaries left the AP for the far right, and Fraga and the remaining AP members joined other more moderately conservative and Christian Democratic politicians to form the Democratic Coalition (CD).
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