Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (1974)

Socialist Party of the Valencian Country

Partit Socialista del País Valencià
Socialist Party of the Valencian Country Partit Socialista del País Valencià
Founded	1974
Dissolved	1978
Merger of	Group of Socialist Action and Thought; independents; Socialist Convergence of the Valencian Country (1976)
Merged into	Socialist Party of the Valencian Country-PSOE
Newspaper	El poble valencià
Ideology	Democratic Socialism; Valencian nationalism; Antifascism; Pancatalanism; Republicanism
Political position	Left-wing
National affiliation	People's Socialist Party Socialist Unity (1977)
	Politics of Spain; Political parties; Elections;

Valencian Socialist Party (in Valencian: Partit Socialista del País Valencià) was a political party in Valencia, Spain. It existed between 1974 and 1978, during the Francoist dictatorship and the early Spanish transition to democracy, which had banned all the political organizations other than those in the Movimiento Nacional. The party wasn't legalized until the 9 of April 1977.

Ideology

The party considered that Valencians were a "singular people", part of the cultural and national unity of the Catalan Countries. The PSPV defended confederalism as the best solution to the internal organization of Spain.

History

Its founders came from different left-wing currents, but the majority were members or had been close to the historic Valencian Socialist Party. The party experimented a significant growth in 1975, specially in Horta Nord, the stronghold of the PSPV.

The party was legalized in April 1977, presenting a common candidacy with the People's Socialist Party called Socialist Unity. The coalition gained 1 MP and 1 senator in the 1977 elections, the first democratic ones since 1936. Due to the good results of the PSOE, that won in the Valencian Country, a sector in the PSPV defended joining that party. Finally, in 1978, the majority sector of the PSPV voted in favour of joining the Valencian federation of the PSOE, forming the Socialist Party of the Valencian Country-PSOE. The other sector decided to join other political movements, including the Communist Party of the Valencian Country and the Nationalist Party of the Valencian Country.

References

Benito Sanz Díaz and Miquel Nadal i Tàrrega: Tradició i modernitat en el valencianisme. València, Edicions Tres i Quatre, 1996
Santacreu Soler and José Miguel: La transició democràtica al País Valencià. La Xara edicions, 2002, p. 158. ISBN 84-95213-26-5.