Free () was a Catalan

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

founded in October 2016 and registered in December by former members of

Democratic Convergence of Catalonia The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (; , CDC), frequently shortened as Convergence (; ) was a Catalan nationalist, liberal political party in Catalonia (Spain), currently still existing without any political activity. The party was originall ...

(CDC) and

Democratic Union of Catalonia The Democratic Union of Catalonia (; , UDC), frequently shortened as Union (; ), was a regionalist, Christian-democratic political party in the Catalonia region of Spain existing between 1931 and 2017. Together with Democratic Convergence of C ...

(UDC), including former CDC regional minister in

Jordi Pujol Jordi Pujol i Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a retired Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003. Early life ...

's sixth government Antoni Fernández Teixidó as well as former UDC deputy

Roger Montañola Roger Montañola i Busquets (born 29 March 1986) is a Spanish politician and political scientist, who was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia within the Convergence and Union, Convergence i Unió parliamentary group. A member of the Democratic ...

. It defined itself as a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

and

Catalanist Catalan nationalism promotes the idea that the Catalan people form a distinct nation and national identity. A related term is Catalanism (, ), which is more related to regionalism and tends to have a wider meaning, most people who define themsel ...

party opposed to

Catalan independence The Catalan independence movement (; ; ) is a Social movement, social and political movement with roots in Catalan nationalism that seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain. While proposals, organizations and individuals advocating for Ca ...

, and since its inception it struggled to form a unitary Catalanist electoral alliance mirroring the political platform of the late

Convergence and Union Convergence and Union (, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller counterpart, the Democratic ...

. On 27 January 2022, the party decided to dissolve itself and merged into Centrem.

History

The party had collected the required signatures for contesting the

2017 Catalan regional election The 2017 Catalan regional election was held on Thursday 21 December 2017 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was called by Spanish prime minist ...

, but it ultimately declined to do so on the grounds because of the existing "strong political polarization"—resulting from the enforcement of direct rule over Catalonia following the events sparked by the 1 October independence referendum—being "inauspicious for the Catalanist centre". Ahead of the 2019 Barcelona municipal election, the party sought an alliance with the electoral platform of former

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (), officially the prime minister of the French Republic (''Premier ministre de la République française''), is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers. The prime ...

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (born 13August 1962) is a French–Spanish politician who serves as Minister of the Overseas in the Bayrou government since 2024. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president Françoi ...

, but disagreements and alleged breaches of the alliance pact that both parties had signed earlier in the year led to Teixidó's resigning as party president. The party also voiced its opposition to Valls's involvement in the 10 February 2019 demonstration in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

against

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

's national government because of it "only favouring Vox", a far-right political party which had been surging in national polling in the aftermath of the

2018 Andalusian regional election The 2018 Andalusian regional election was held on Sunday, 2 December 2018, to elect the 11th Parliament of Andalusia, Parliament of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. All 109 seats in the Parliament were up for ...

. In September 2019, party members in disagreement with the party's policy of coalescing into a Catalanist political platform formed an internal current, dubbed as "2 July spirit", supportive of allying with Valls after the latter's break up with

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

(Cs) to contest future elections. The party also attended the "Poblet Meeting" on 21 September 2019, together with about 200 members from the PDeCAT's more moderate sectors, seeking to discuss the political future of the post-convergent political space and its drift towards

unilateralism __NOTOC__ Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find disagreeable. As a word, ''un ...

under former

Catalan president The president of the Government of Catalonia (, ) is head of government of Catalonia, leading the executive branch of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan government. It is one of the bodies that the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia stipul ...

Carles Puigdemont Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. He has been the President of Together for Catalonia (Junts) since 2024, having previously held the office from 2020 to 2022. He served ...

National Call for the Republic National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(CNxR) and his growing influence over CDC's successor, the

Catalan European Democratic Party The Catalan European Democratic Party (, PDeCAT, sometimes stylized as PDECat), initially branded as the Catalan Democratic Party (, PDC), was a liberal political party in Spain that supported Catalan independence. The party was founded in Bar ...

(PDeCAT). Among those attending the Meeting were former PDeCAT coordinator-general Marta Pascal, party colleagues Carles Campuzano, Jordi Xuclà, Marta Pigem or Lluis Recoder, as well as members from other parties aside of Lliures (such as

Ramon Espadaler Ramon Espadaler Parcerisas (born 19 September 1963 in Vic, Catalonia, Spain

and Albert Batlle from

United to Advance United to Advance (, Els Units) is a Catalan centrist and Christian democratic political party founded in June 2017 by former members of the defunct Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC) and non-independentist Catalan nationalists. The party defines ...

(Els Units)). The party had scheduled its merge with the similarly aligned Democratic League (LD) in a party congress to be held in March 2020. The congress was delayed and then suspended as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...

, and new developments up until June 2020 saw Lliures disengaging from the initial merger idea in favour of constituting a broader electoral alliance that could also comprise other parties, such as Els Units or the newly founded

Nationalist Party of Catalonia The Nationalist Party of Catalonia (, PNC) is a Catalan nationalist and liberal political party in Catalonia. The party was established on 12 May 2020 by former Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) coordinator-general Marta Pascal. It held ...

(PNC). On 15 July 2020, it was announced that the party would be forming an electoral alliance with LD and Convergents (CNV) to contest the

2021 Catalan regional election The 2021 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 14 February 2021, to elect the 13th/14th Parliament of Catalonia, Parliament of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up ...

, on the basis of a joint programme pushing for an expansion of Catalan self-government and a solidary fiscal agreement, as well as opposing Catalan independence and

References

External links

*{{Twitter 2016 establishments in Catalonia Catalan nationalist parties Centrist parties in Spain Political parties established in 2016 Political parties in Catalonia 2022 disestablishments in Catalonia Political parties disestablished in 2022