The end of the party of the Transition. The internal division as a cause of the disappearance of UCD

Abstract

The rise and fall of Unión de Centro Democrático has been one of the great questions of the Contemporary History of Spain. The disappearance of what has been considered the party of the Transition was due, among other factors, to the sharp division existing in the formation since its origins. Christian Democrats, social democrats, liberals, blues, regionalists, or sectors very close to certain barons, experienced an internal struggle as controversial as the ones they had with the opposition parties.

This article will analyze how the serious internal disputes became a precipitating factor in the decline of the UCD. A political project that had become everything under the leadership of Adolfo Suárez, and which was completely dismembered only five years after its creation. In the 1982 general elections it lost the vast majority of its representation in Congress, going from 168 to 11 deputies.