Mexican Democratic Party

The Mexican Democratic Party (Spanish: Partido Demócrata Mexicano, PDM, also known as El Partido Gallito Colorado, "The Little Red Rooster Party"[2][3]) was an Catholic social conservative political party in Mexico that existed between 1979 and 1997. At its height in 1982, the party had over 500,000 active voters and 12 seats in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados).

Mexican Democratic Party
Partido Demócrata Mexicano
Founded1975
Dissolved1997
Succeeded bySocial Alliance Party
HeadquartersMexico City, Mexico
IdeologyMexican synarchism[1] National conservatism
Social conservatism
National syndicalism
Political Catholicism
Neo-fascism
Political positionFar-right
ReligionCatholicism
National affiliationNational Synarchist Union

History

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Origins

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Opus Dei and its increasing influence in Mexico during the 1970s contributed to the establishment of the PDM.

The PDM had its origin in the Manuel Torres Bueno wing of the right-wing Catholic and the clerical fascist National Synarchist Union (UNS), who fought openly against anti-Catholic articles of the Constitution of 1917, particularly in the states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Guanajuato and Michoacán, the states in which the Cristero War was fought from 1926 to 1929.

Whilst the UNS faded after the 1940s it continued as a local group and was boosted, along with a number of other opposition groups, by a series of electoral reforms during the 1970s that introduced an element of proportional representation into the electoral system. As a result of these, the UNS, the activities of which were largely confined to Guanajuato, was reconstituted as a new political party called the Mexican Democratic Party.[4]

The party was formed against a backdrop of renewed importance for the Catholic Church in Mexican society, with a growth in the influence of groups such as Opus Dei whilst the opposition National Action Party (PAN) self-identified as Catholic.[5] The two parties differed however in that the PDM drew support from the rural lower-classes, whilst the PAN was firmly the province of the urban middle classes, and the PAN had a more moderate platform than the PDM.[4]

Electoral performance

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In the 1979 legislative elections, the PDM gained 10 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.[6] It increased its representation to 12 seats in the 1982 election.[7] It was in the old UNS heartlands that the PDM obtained its greatest electoral presence, prevailing in several important municipalities like Lagos de Moreno in Jalisco or the city of Guanajuato.

Although the PDM managed to gain seats in the Chamber of Deputies, it was a very small opposition party compared to the PAN, having gained only 2.3% of the nationwide vote during the 1982 general election. Even so, if its seat increase from the 1979 congressional election to the 1982 election is considered, the PDM had the second-highest (after the PAN) percentage increase of total votes out of all the political parties in Mexico.[8]

Decline and dissolution

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Ernesto Zedillo was the presidential candidate that won the 1994 election, the last time the PDM would participate in an election before it lost its registry.

In the presidential elections of 1988 the party started to lose support. In the presidential elections of 1994, the party supported the candidature of Pablo Emilio Madero and was renamed National Opposition Union (UNO) after having joined with several small conservative organizations. It lost its registry. It again recovered it in 1996, but in the 1997 elections, it lost its registry again.[9]

Many of their militants and members conformed in 1999 the new Social Alliance Party, which did not obtain notable political presence in the country either.

In 2013, Former party members began laying the basis for the party's re-registration to compete in the 2015 legislative elections.[10] This has not yet been confirmed.

Ideology

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The PDM describes itself as ultranationalist, ultra-religious, anti-communist, and anti-liberal with Its origins from the National Synarchist Union (UNS).[11]

rather than a complete socialist establishment in Mexico, they claimed they were searching for a political alternative to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that would represent their "petty-bourgeois" interests for peasants and the lower classes and pursue "reformism that corrects the evils of Mexican capitalism”.[11]

Notable members

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Party presidents

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Presidential candidates

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Electoral history

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Presidential elections

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Election year Candidate Votes % Outcome Notes
1982 Ignacio González Gollaz 433,886 1.9 #4 Lost
1988 Gumersindo Magaña Negrete 199,484 1.04 #4 Lost
1994 Pablo Emilio Madero 97,935 0.28 #9 Lost

Congressional elections

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Chamber of Deputies

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Election year Constituency PR # of seats Position Presidency Note
votes % votes %
1979 293,540 2.3 #5
10 / 237
José López Portillo  
1982 534,122 2.1 #5
12 / 400
Miguel de la Madrid  
1985 507,710 2.9 #4
12 / 400
Miguel de la Madrid  
1988 244,458 1.3 #7
0 / 500
Carlos Salinas de Gortari  
1991 276,661 1.2 #7
0 / 500
Carlos Salinas de Gortari  
1994 151,100 0.4 #9
0 / 500
Ernesto Zedillo  
1997 193,509 0.7 #7
0 / 500
Ernesto Zedillo  

See also

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References

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  1. ^ A. Riding, Mexico: Inside the Volcano, Coronet Books, 1989, p. 113
  2. ^ Villalobos, Juan Pablo (2014-02-11). Quesadillas. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-374-53395-3.
  3. ^ "Gale - Product Login". galeapps.gale.com. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  4. ^ a b A. Riding, Mexico: Inside the Volcano, Coronet Books, 1989, p. 113
  5. ^ Riding, Mexico, p. 92
  6. ^ Riding, Mexico, p. 101
  7. ^ Riding, Mexico, p. 102
  8. ^ Tagle, Silvia Gómez (1984). "El Partido Demócrata Mexicano y su presencia en la sociedad". Revista Mexicana de Sociología. 46 (2): 75–110. doi:10.2307/3540176. ISSN 0188-2503. JSTOR 3540176.
  9. ^ dice, AHF México convoca a 2ª Carrera por el Día Mundial del Sida 2023-Mexico Social. "https://www.mexicosocial.org/conservadurismo/" (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 2024-03-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Gaceta.mx Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ a b Delgado, Gloria (2007). Historia de Mexico Vol. II (in Spanish). Pearson Educación. ISBN 978-970-26-0956-8.