Union of the Democratic Centre

The Union of the Democratic Centre (, UCD or UCeDé) is a centre-right to right-wing conservative and economically liberal political party in Argentina. It was founded in 1982 by Álvaro Alsogaray who unsuccessfully run in the 1983 and 1989 presidential elections, and represented the conservative elite, technocrats, and classical liberals. As of October 2020 the party doesn't count with legal recognition nationwide. History The leader of the party, Álvaro Alsogaray, was a national deputy for the City of Buenos Aires for sixteen consecutive years, between 1983 and 1999. In 1983 and 1989 he was a candidate for the presidency, and then appointed ad hoc presidential advisor to Carlos Menem. By 1989, the UceDé had emerged as the third political force nationwide, after the traditional major parties: the Justicialist Party (PJ) and the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Carlos Menem, an exponent of the growing pro-market wing within the formerly Peronist PJ, won the election of 1989. UCeDé concluded an alliance with the Justicialist-led administration which had only a narrow majority in the Chamber of Deputies and gave important support to its policies of privatization and liberal economic reforms. Alsogaray, who had been an opponent of traditional Peronism, became the administration's chief policy advisor and his daughter María Julia secretary of natural resources and the main responsible for the privatization of the public telecommunications company ENTel. In the subsequent presidential election, the UCeDé endorsed Carlos Menem.