United Left (Spain)
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United_Left_Party_of_Argentina_logo.GIF
After the electoral fall of the PCE in 1982 (from 10% to 3%), IU slowly improved its results reaching 9% in 1993 (1,800,000 votes) and nearly 11% in 1996 (2,600,000 votes). From 1999 it went into decline, with its support slipping to 5% in 2000. In that election it signed a pact with the Socialist Party (PSOE).
From 1986 to 2001, its leader was the general secretary of the PCE, Julio Anguita. From 2001 on it has been Gaspar Llamazares. IU has an important support base in Andalusia and Madrid, because of the communist traditions of PCE.
Following the tradition of the Spanish left since the formation of PSUC in 1936, IU doesn't have any organization of its own in Catalonia. Until 1998 the referrent of IU in Catalonia was Iniciativa per Catalunya. But IC moved towards the right, and broke relations with IU. A split in PSUC followed and a new Catalonian alliance, Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA) was formed as the new Catalonian referrent of IU.
In the last election, held on March 14, 2004, IU took 5% of the vote, with 1,250,000 votes. Because of the election law, its number of MPs was reduced from 9 to 5, in coalition with Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (Initiative for Catalonia-Greens, ICV).
IU officially has around 70,000 activists and more than 2,500 councillors.
External links
- Official website (http://www.izquierda-unida.es/)de:Izquierda Unida