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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Spain
Index
The Democratic and Social Center (Centro Democratico y
Social--CDS) was organized shortly before the October 1982
elections by Suarez, who had been the principal architect
of the
transition to a democratic system after the death of
Franco.
After he resigned as both prime minister of Spain and
president
of the UCD in January 1981, Suarez continued to struggle
for
control of the party machine. When he failed in his bid to
regain
party leadership in July 1982, he abandoned the party he
had
created and formed the CDS. The new centrist party fared
poorly
in the October general elections, gaining only two
parliamentary
seats.
By 1986 the party's fortunes had improved dramatically
under
the leadership of the former prime minister. In the June
elections, the CDS more than tripled its share of the
vote, which
was 9.2 percent in 1986, compared with 2.9 percent in
1982,
indicating that many who had previously voted for the UCD
had
transferred their support to the CDS. In the electoral
campaign,
Suarez had focused on his own experience as head of the
government; he had criticized the PSOE for not fulfilling
its
1982 election promises, had advocated a more independent
foreign
policy, and had called for economic measures that would
improve
the lot of the poor. This strategy enabled him to draw
some votes
from those who had become disillusioned with the PSOE.
In the municipal and the regional elections held in
June
1987, the largest gains were made by the CDS. A poll taken
at the
end of 1987 revealed even stronger support for the party,
and it
gave Suarez a popularity rating equal to that of Gonzalez.
Suarez's call for less dependence on the United States
appealed
to the latent anti-Americanism in the populace, and his
advocacy
of a greater role for the state in providing social
services and
in ensuring a more equitable distribution of income struck
a
responsive chord among the workers, who were growing
increasingly
impatient with Gonzalez's conservative economic policies.
Nevertheless, it remained to be seen how far Suarez's
populist
rhetoric would take him in his quest to challenge the
PSOE.
Data as of December 1988
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