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Centrist Democrat International

The Centrist Democrat International (CDI; Spanish: Internacional Demócrata de Centro, IDC) is an international political organization.

The CDI was founded on 30 July 1961 in Santiago, Chile, as the Christian Democrat World Union, reflecting the central role that Christian democratic parties played in its foundation. However, over the decades, the CDI has progressively expanded its identity and membership to include parties from a wide range of ideological traditions, and in 1999, it was renamed the Centrist Democrat International due to the participation of groups from other religions.

Today, it represents a broad political family committed to defending and strengthening constitutional democracy as the only viable system for guaranteeing freedom, pluralism, and social justice. To achieve this, the CDI works through its regional organizations.

The CDI's European division is the European People's Party, the largest European political party. Its African equivalent is the regional IDC.Africa, which has its own statutes aligned with the principles of the CDI. The CDI also works with think tanks such as the National Democratic Institute and the Wilfred Martens Centre (WMCES).

Timeline

  • December 1925: The first international gathering of Catholic-Christian democratic parties takes place in Paris, establishing the International Secretariat of Democratic Parties of Christian Inspiration (SIPDIC). Member parties were from Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, and Lithuania.
  • 1939 to 1945: World War II suspends the SIPDIC.
  • 23 April 1947: Political leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay meet in Montevideo to create an international organization of Christian democratic parties. Representatives from Bolivia and Peru participate via diplomatic correspondence. The Declaration of Montevideo establishes the Organización Demócrata Cristiana de América (ODCA), although the name is not formalized until their second meeting in July 1949.
  • 3 June 1947: European Christian Democrats form the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales (NEI) in Chaudfontaine, Belgium, prompted by the Swiss a year before restarting the SIPDIC. The NEI, open to non-Catholic parties who subscribed to the principles of social democracy, sees European integration as the best way to prevent the spread of communism into western Europe and encourages exile groups from Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia to attend. The NEI plays a significant role in preparations for the Hague Congress and the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community.
  • 26 July 1950: The Christian Democratic Union of Central Europe (CDUCE) is formed in New York City to assist Christian democratic parties in exile by organizing forces in opposition to communism. By 1955, it begins working with underground operatives in the Soviet bloc while trying to coordinate efforts between European and Latin American Christian Democratic parties.
  • May and July 1956: The ODCA, NEI, and CDUCE meet for the first time in Paris at a gathering of 33 delegations from 28 countries to discuss the creation of a global Christian democratic organization.
  • 1960: The three regional Christian democratic organizations establish the Christian Democratic International Information and Documentation Centre (CDI-IDC) in Rome to provide political analyses for Christian democratic parties around the world.
  • 1961: The World Union of Christian Democrats (WUCD) is established in Santiago.
  • 1982: The WUCD changes its name to the Christian Democrat International (CDI).
  • 1999: The CDI changes its name to the Centrist Democrat International due to the increasing membership of non-Christian political parties. Since October 2000, some have informally referred to the CDI as the Christian Democrat and People's Parties International.
  • 2021: The CDI underwent a profound change in its legal and constitutive form, considerably increasing its political, communicative and organisational skills.

Executive committee

The CDI Executive Committee consists of the President, Secretary-general, and Vice-Presidents. The President is Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of Colombia and the Secretary-General is MEP Antonio López-Istúriz of Spain.

Members of the executive committee are:

Member parties

Former members

Observer parties

The IDC-CDI has 21 observers, including:

See also

Notes

Further reading

  • Grabow, Karsten & Hartleb, Florian (Eds.) (2013). Exposing the Demagogues. Center for European Studies & Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

External links