In search of lost center. The genealogy of the Popular Party (PP)

Abstract

The selfdestruction of UCD, stressed by the christiandemocrats, favored a new will of reconstruction of the polítical center in a liberal fashion. The Joaquin Garrigues Walker ́s heirs will take different pathways in search of lost center, that explains the difficulties of Manuel Fraga in front of an Alianza Popular (AP) in evolution herself to make reality his dream of a «natural majority». The refounding of the PP is not understandable without asuming the different moves of those center-oriented groups and the own pragmatic byas of Fraga, even though his own image in the future was different. This refounding, more than a renovation of the AP within a coherent evolution of the party, as pretended by the official story, was a reinvention of UCD. The process of refounding was not even lineal because it has several set-backs. The first one was delivered by Fraga and Marcelino Oreja as the referent, it was shaped in christiandemocrat terms, with a twist trying to remember and rewrite the history of UCD, especially from its very end. The second was starred by José María Aznar indicates a change in this alleged christiandemocrat orientation trying to recover the pulse of the liberal center. The company of Pio Cabanillas shows the biggest of Aznar ́s ambitions which was to be not at the end but at the beginning of UCD trying to revive the political origins of the initial tears of the PP of 1976, and there is where, to my account, must be anchor the genealogy of the Popular Party of the 90s to be free from old ties of Alianza Popular.