PP ends 17-year alliance with Navarre UPN party

29 October 2008

MADRID – Spain’s main opposition People’s Party announced Tuesday that it is breaking with the Union of the People of Navarre (UPN), a like-minded conservative group that had represented it in the northern region over the last 17 years.

The split comes after one of the UPN’s two representatives in Congress refused to follow the PP’s line and abstained instead of voting against the Socialist government’s draft 2009 budget in Congress last week.

Announcing the end of the 17-year-old alliance, PP Secretary General María Dolores de Cospedal said the party will now begin the process of establishing itself in Navarre, independent of the UPN, which currently controls a minority government in the region.

She invited disgruntled UPN politicians to switch to the PP’s ranks.

[El Pais / Expatica]