1990 Paretian general election

1990 Paretian general election

2 Aug 1990
All seats in the Senado da Paretia and regional legislatures
First party Second party Third party   Leader Julío Pires Martí Solaries Diniz Carreira Party Social Democrats New Democracy Together for Liberty Leader's seat Adrecar Saragon Santo Fantasma do Leste Last election 114 C / 35 A 156C / 52A 38 C / 12 A Seats before 114 C / 35 A 155 C / 52 A 38 C / 12 A Seats won 237 C / 71 A 86 C / 30 A 11 C / 7 A Seat change 123 C / 36 A 69 C / 22 A 27 C / 5 A Votes 11,559,693 6,273,611 525,281 % and swing 63.83% 33.43% 21.83% 2.78% 6.3% 7.56%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Benvido Rego Òscar Sergiol Carlos Temido Party Greens Tosuton Front Citizens Movement Leader's seat Leiterín Platja Reial Fogosagra (lost) Last election 6 C / 2 A 2 C / 2 A 18 C / 4 A Seats before 6 C / 2 A 2 C / 2 A 18 C / 4 A Seats won 6 C / 2 A 5 C / 3 A 4 C / 1 A Seat change C / A 3 C / 1 A 14 C / 3 A Votes 292,406 243,380 198,732 % and swing 1.67% 1.1% 1.38% 0.83% 1.13% 3.86%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Ricardo Martins Xacinto Verdugo Victor Saraiva Party Catholic Democracy Party Visegan Party Paretian Section of the Workers' International Leader's seat De Pietro Reicarlos Vale de Precea Last election 20 C / 5 A 1 C / 1 A 1 C / 1 A Seats before 20 C / 5 A 1 C / 1 A 1 C / 1 A Seats won 4 C / 1 A 4 C / 2 A 1 C / 1 A Seat change 16 C / 4 A 3 C / 1 A C / A Votes 197,856 196,105 52,528 % and swing 1.13% 4.43% 1.12% 0.99% 0.30% 20.83%
Map of the results of the election, showing the constituencies and the party they voted for.
Premier before election Martí Solaries New Democracy Premier Julío Pires Social Democrats

The 1990 Paretian general election was held on August 2 1990. It is widely considered one of the most important elections in Paretian history as it results saw record numbers, specifically in reference to the victorious Social Democrats, lead by Julío Pires, who were able to use their record number of seats to enact their agenda, especially the eventual referendum to join the Euclean Community the following year, which succeeded.

Background

Joining the EC became the forefront issue in the 1980s

The election would come during the incumbent rule of New Democracy, under Premier Martí Solaries, along with an alliance with the Catholic Democracy Party and Citizens Movement. The country was still suffering the effects of inflation and recession throughout the 1980s, Premierships of Manuela Morais and Solaries had failed to come through on relieving the economy. Morais also failed on making the promise of joining the Euclean Community, which became a major issue. The Social Democrats were a rising party that had come to replace the splintered Paretian Labour Party. The Social Democrat's predecessor party, the Euclean Social Democratic Party of Paretia, was founded on focusing on joining the Euclean Community, this policy continued into the Social Democrats.

The leader of the Social Democrats was the charismatic Julío Pires, who had left the party leadership position for a short period in the middle of the 1980s due to personal reasons. He returned to the position in 1985. He had been able to reunite the centre-left which had fallen apart during scandals and division under the Premiership of Eugênio Dantas in the late 1970s. The new Social Democrats ran on the promise of a hastly joining of the Euclean Community. The party became close friends with EC social democratic parties, including in Gaullica, Estmere, and Hennehouwe. Julío Pires would be able to make close friendships with EC social democrats, helping aid his case for convincing voters on his promise to join the EC. The left in Paretia would rally behind the Social Democrats in their campaigns.

The right-wing was rallied behind New Democracy during the early 1980s under Timoteo Cabral, but other centre-right parties such as the Catholic Democracy Party and the Citizens Movement made it hard for the New Democracy to get a large foothold on the right in the country, they were more lenient on joining the Euclean Community compared to the ND, which decided to make their position against joining the community. This would cause problems in the ND, as some members of the parties supported joining the EC for economic reasons, this lead to a loss of confidence for voters in the party, who did not get a clear message on whether the party was keen on joining the Community or not.

For the young parties such as Together for Liberty and Citizens Movement, they faced the choice of the EC issue quite easily. They were massively in support of joining the community, making any centre-right to centre government less likely to stay out of the Community. The Catholic Democracy Party was much more split on the issue, but most of the party would be in support of joining the community. On the far-left, the Paretian Section of the Workers' International was against joining the community, claiming that the community is a capitalist empire. The Greens were in support of joining the community.

The regional parties such as the Tosuton Front and Visegan Party saw rising support during the late 1980s. For these two regionalist parties they supported joining the community. There was slightly less support in the Party for Luzelese Interest or the Esmeira Party, but in general the regionalist parties were in support of joining the EC.

These parties wanting the join the EC isolated New Democracy's position, conflicting messaging in the party devastated confidence in the party. The Social Democrats were in a perfect position to take advantage and win big.

Parties

Party		Ideology	Political position	Leader	1987 result (Congresso)	1987 result (Conselho)
	New Democracy	Conservatism, liberal conservatism, sotirian democracy, eucloscepticism	Center-right to Right-wing	Martí Solaries	156 / 360	52 / 120
	Social Democrats	Social democracy, progressivism, democratic socialism, pro-eucleanism	Center-left	Julío Pires	114 / 360	35 / 120
	Together for Liberty	Liberalism, social liberalism, centrism, pro-eucleanism	Centre	Diniz Carreira	38 / 360	12 / 120
	Catholic Democracy Party	Sotirian democracy, social conservatism, religious conservatism	Center-right	Ricardo Martins	20 / 360	5 / 120
	Citizens Movement	Conservative liberalism, sotirian democracy, direct democracy	Center-right	Carlos Temido	18 / 360	4 / 120
	Greens	Green politics, environmentalism, green socialism	Center-left	Benvido Rego	6 / 360	2 / 120
	Tosuton Front	Tosuton regionalism, social liberalism	Center-left	Òscar Sergiol	2 / 360	2 / 120
	Visegan Party	Visegan regionalism, social democracy	Center-left	Xacinto Verdugo	1 / 360	2 / 120
	Esmeira Party	Esmeiran regionalism, social conservatism	Center-right	Ronaldo Diaz Ortega	1 / 360	2 / 120
	Party for Luzelese Interests	Luzelese regionalism, liberal conservatism	Center-left	Paulo Santos	1 / 360	2 / 120
	Luzelese Representation Party	Luzelese senate expansion, social conservatism, senate reform	Center-right	Estevão Lima Leitão	1 / 360	2 / 120
	Paretian Section of the Workers' International	Council socialism, revolutionary socialism, libertarian socialism	Far-left	Victor Saraiva	1 / 360	1 / 120
	Civic Monarchist Front	Monarchism, traditionalism, conservatism	Right-wing	Rúben Passos	1 / 360	1 / 120

Campaign

Solaries with supporters in Burgo Coroa

Pires at a Social Democrat rally in Ocerto

The Social Democrats held rallies nearly constanty during the later 1980s, even ouside of the election cycles. They began to become more frequent during the 1990 election cycle, they made campaign promises of joining the Euclean Community, in what they called a "swift and strategic manner". They also promised major economic and social reforms to make Paretia an acceptable EC country, such as banning the death penalty and raising the minimum wage. Their rallies were massive in scale, and became an indicator of the results to come in the election.

On the right New Democracy promised to "work with the EC" but never outright promised to join them. They began to hold rallies across their main voting base but eventually attempted to get support in areas that would likely go Social Democrat. Their rallies were much smaller than the Social Democrats, which hurt confidence in the party in the election.

For the smaller parties, they promised to join the Euclean Community as well. But fears that they would not be able to achieve the promises such as social and economic reforms like the larger Social Democrats made it harder for them to sell their message to voters. Regional parties were able to make promises of more autonomy for the regions under EC membership.

The election cycle was not very hyperpartisan and violence was very little during it. Solaries would attempt a strategy of trying to get the Tosutons to vote right-wing, with campaign rallies being increasingly common in his homeland of Tosutonia. This strategy would prove to be a failure on the ND.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Result	+/-
	Social Democrats		63.83%	237 / 360	123
	New Democracy		21.83%	86 / 360	69
	Together for Liberty		6.3%	11 / 360	27
	Greens		1.67%	6 / 360
	Tosuton Front		1.38%	5 / 360	3
	Citizens Movement		1.13%	4 / 360	14
	Catholic Democracy Party		1.13%	4 / 360	16
	Visegan Party		1.12%	4 / 360	3
	Paretian Section of the Workers' International		0.30%	1 / 360
	Esmeira Party		0.11%	1 / 360
	Luzelese Representation Party		0.11%	1 / 360
	Party for Luzelese Interests		0.10%	1 / 360
	Other		0.9%	0 / 360

Party		Votes	%	Result	+/-
	Social Democrats		63.83%	71 / 120	36
	New Democracy		21.83%	30 / 120	22
	Together for Liberty		6.3%	7 / 120	5
	Tosuton Front		1.38%	3 / 120	1
	Greens		1.67%	2 / 120
	Citizens Movement		1.13%	1 / 120	3
	Catholic Democracy Party		1.13%	1 / 120	4
	Visegan Party		1.12%	1 / 120	1
	Paretian Section of the Workers' International		0.30%	1 / 120
	Esmeira Party		0.11%	1 / 120
	Luzelese Representation Party		0.11%	1 / 120
	Party for Luzelese Interests		0.10%	1 / 120
	Other		0.9%	0 / 120

Government formation

Investiture Julío Pires (Social Democrat)
Ballot →		4 Aug 1990
Required majority →		180 out of 360 Y
	Yes • SD (237) • Greens (6) • FT (5) • PV (1)	249 / 360
	No • ND (86) • JpL (11) • MC (4) • PDC (4) • SPIO (1) • PIL (1) • PRL (1)	108 / 360
	Abstentions • PE (1)	1 / 360
	Absentees	0 / 360