President: | Camilo Escalona |
Founded: | 1994 |
Ideology: | Socialism, Social Democracy |
Political position: | Left |
Senate: | 10 / 72 |
Chamber of Deputies: | 26 / 176 |
The People's Democratic Unity (Span: Unidad Democrática Popular) is a Chilean political bloc that generally represents the political left. It was formed following the 1994 elections and included the Democratic People's Socialist Party, and the Party of Social Democracy. The new Radical Party was invited to join to the coalition several times, but in all refused. The UDP came to power with the 1998 election of Ricardo Lagos to the Presidency and a thin majority in the Congress of Chile, but fell from power in 2006 after Presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet's agreement to allow the Communist Party to enter the bloc earned the outrage and full mobilization of the political right and the defection of the Party for Social Democracy to a position of independence. Since the allowance of the Communists, largely under pressure from then-President Isabel Allende, into the bloc, the UDP has suffered electorally due to the unpopularity of the Communist Party.