National Renewal (RN) (
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
: "Renovación Nacional"), is a
right-wingIn politics, right-wing, political right, rightist and the Right are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for preserving traditional or cultural values and customs or for maintaining some form of social hierarchy or private...
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
political partyA political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns...
belonging to the
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an right-wing political coalition
Alliance for ChileThe Alliance for Chile , also known as La Alianza , is a coalition of right-wing Chilean political parties. It includes the National Renewal and the Independent Democratic Union...
in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union (UDI). The party president is Carlos Larraín, and its principal leaders are
Sebastián PiñeraMiguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echeñique is a Chilean economist, investor and politician. He is a member of the center-right National Renewal party, a constituent of the Alliance for Chile coalition, and a former Senator. In 2005, he ran in the Chilean presidential election, losing to Michelle...
, the latest presidential candidate of the party, and
Andrés Allamand300px|right|thumb|Andrés Allamand Zavala.Andrés Allamand Zavala, a Chilean politician, is the founder and one of the past leaders of Renovación Nacional, currently an opposition party.-External links:* *...
.
History
National Renewal was formed in 1987 when three rightist organizations — the National Unity Movement (
Movimiento de Unidad Nacional MUN), the National Labor Front (
Frente Nacional del Trabajo FNT), and the Independent Democratic Union (
Unión Democráta Independiente UDI) — joined together in preparation for the 1988 Plebiscite that would determine the continuity of rule of
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
who had been in power since the coup of 1973. The UDI soon broke away to run as a separate party due to its strong support for the plebiscite and a Pinochet candidacy, while the remaining National Renewal party indicated its preference for an open election or a candidate other than Pinochet. However, once Pinochet was proclaimed candidate, the overwhelming majority of National Renewal supported him.
The party was founded on April 29 with 351 founding members. In this way, National Renewal was the first political party to form in Chile after the lifting on the ban of political parties that had been established after the coup; by December of that year, 61,167 members, led by Andrés Allamand, had joined. The principal idea that the party proclaimed was to generate an environment of calm during the return of
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
. The party supported UDI candidate
Joaquín LavínJoaquín José Lavín Infante is a Chilean right-wing politician and economist. He is a member of the Independent Democrat Union party and former mayor of Santiago and Las Condes municipalities of capital Santiago. He ran for president twice in 1999 and 2005, losing both times.Lavín earned a...
as the sole Alliance candidate in the 1999/2000 presidential elections, who went on to obtain 47.5% of the votes in the first round, but was subsequently defeated in the second round by
Ricardo LagosRicardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
.
During early 2005, the party initially supported Lavín to again run as the sole candidate of the Alliance in the presidential election of that year. However, in face of Lavin's declining opinion poll numbers,
Sebastián PiñeraMiguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echeñique is a Chilean economist, investor and politician. He is a member of the center-right National Renewal party, a constituent of the Alliance for Chile coalition, and a former Senator. In 2005, he ran in the Chilean presidential election, losing to Michelle...
announced his candidacy as the National Renewel candidate thus ensuring that the Alliance have two candidates for the election. In the first round on 11 December, Piñera obtained 25.4% of the vote which was enough to send him to the run-off on 15 January 2006 with
Michelle BacheletVerónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a center-left politician and the current President of Chile—the first woman to hold this position in the country's history. She won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right billionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera,...
. Obtaining 46.5% of the vote, Piñera was defeated by Bachelet.
In the legislative
electionsThe 2005 Chilean parliamentary election took place on December 11 2005, in conjunction with the presidential election. All of the 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were contested, while 20 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election . Deputies serve for a period of four years, while...
, also on 11 December 2005, the party won, as part of the
Alliance for ChileThe Alliance for Chile , also known as La Alianza , is a coalition of right-wing Chilean political parties. It includes the National Renewal and the Independent Democratic Union...
, 20 out of 117 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and currently holds 7 out of 38 elected seats in the Senate.
Presidents of National Renewal
National Renewal has had eight party presidents in its history:
- Ricardo Rivadeneira (1987)
- Sergio Jarpa (1987-1990)
- Andrés Allamand
300px|right|thumb|Andrés Allamand Zavala.Andrés Allamand Zavala, a Chilean politician, is the founder and one of the past leaders of Renovación Nacional, currently an opposition party.-External links:* *...
(1990-1999)
- Alberto Espina (1999)
- Alberto Cardemil (1999-2001)
- Sebastián Piñera
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echeñique is a Chilean economist, investor and politician. He is a member of the center-right National Renewal party, a constituent of the Alliance for Chile coalition, and a former Senator. In 2005, he ran in the Chilean presidential election, losing to Michelle...
(2001-2004)
- Sergio Diez (2004-2006)
- Carlos Larraín (2006-)
External links