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Christian Democratic Party (Chile)

The Christian Democratic Party (Spanish: Partido Demócrata Cristiano, PDC) is a Christian democratic political party in Chile. There have been three Christian Democrat presidents in the past, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Patricio Aylwin, and Eduardo Frei Montalva.

Christian Democratic Party
Partido Demócrata Cristiano

Alberto Undurraga

Cecilia Valdés León

Eric Aedo Jeldres

Yasna Provoste

28 July 1957 (1957-07-28)

Social Christian Conservative Party
National Falange

Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 1460, Santiago de Chile

Democracia Cristiana Universitaria

Juventud Demócrata Cristiana

31,776 (7th)[1]

Centre[7][8][9][10] to centre-left[4][11]

Roman Catholicism

Centrist Democrat International

Christian Democrat Organization of America

  Blue

8 / 155
3 / 43
36 / 278
46 / 345
315 / 2,224

Customarily, the PDC backs specific initiatives in an effort to bridge socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. This economic system has been called "social capitalism" and is heavily influenced by Catholic social teaching or, more generally, Christian ethics. In addition to this objective, the PDC also supports a strong national government while remaining more conservative on social issues. However, after Pinochet's military regime ended the PDC embraced more classical economic policies compared to before the dictatorship. The current Secretary-General of the PDC is Gonzalo Duarte. In their latest "Ideological Congress", the Christian Democrats criticized Chile's current economic system and called for a shift toward a social market economy (economía social de mercado). The PDC had cooperated with centre-left parties after the end of Pinochet rule.


Except during the military dictatorship (1973–1990) when the congress was shut down the Christian Democrat Party was the largest party in parliament from 1965 to 2001.[12] In 2022 the party has faced a severe internal crisis, with many prominent politicians leaving it.

(1964–1970)

Eduardo Frei Montalva

(1990–1994)

Patricio Aylwin

(1994–2000)

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle

: Eduardo Frei Montalva (lost)

1958

: Eduardo Frei Montalva (won)

1964

: Radomiro Tomic (lost)

1970

: "No" (won)

1988 plebiscite

: Patricio Aylwin (won)

1989

: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (won)

1993

: Ricardo Lagos (won)

1999

: Michelle Bachelet (won)

2005

: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (lost)

2009

: Michelle Bachelet (won)

2013

: Carolina Goic (lost) Second round support: Alejandro Guillier (lost)

2017

: Yasna Provoste (lost) Second round support: Gabriel Boric Font (won)

2021

The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the Christian Democratic Party. (Information gathered from the Archive of Chilean Elections).

Luna, Juan Pablo; Monestier, Felipe; Rosenblatt, Fernando (2014). Religious parties in Chile: The Christian Democratic Party and the Independent Democratic Union. Routledge. pp. 119–137. {{}}: |work= ignored (help)

cite book

Official web site

Media related to Christian Democrat Party of Chile at Wikimedia Commons