Broad Front (Uruguay)

The Broad Front (Frente Amplio, FA) is a Uruguayan left-wing coalition of political parties. It is led by Jorge Brovetto. Frente Amplio has close ties with PIT-CNT trade union and the cooperative housing movement.

History
Frente Amplio was founded as a coalition of more than a dozen fractured leftist parties and movements in 1971. The first president of the front and its first candidate for the presidency of the country was General Liber Seregni. The front was declared illegal during 1973 military coup d'état of and emerged again in 1984 when democracy was restored in Uruguay.

In 1994 Progressive Encounter (Encuentro Progresista) was formed by several minor independent factions and the Frente Amplio. EP and FA started contesting elections jointly under the name Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio. Later another force, Nuevo Espacio, became linked to the front. Thus it started contesting elections as Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio - Nueva Mayoria.

In 2005 member organizations of Progressive Encounter and New Majority (essentially Nuevo Espacio) merged into the front, and the coalition took the name of the larger force, Frente Amplio. Previously, EP and later NM had been allied with FA but organizationally separate structures.

At the 2004 general election, the party won 51.7% of the popular vote and 52 out of 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 out of 31 in the Senate, while its presidential candidate, Tabaré Vázquez, won the presidential election. The Front retained its majority and the presidency in the 2009 election with José Mujica elected as president.

The alliance is - as far as available - formed by:
 * Asamblea Uruguay (Uruguay Assembly) led by Danilo Astori
 * Partido Socialista del Uruguay (Socialist Party of Uruguay) led by Daniel Martínez
 * Partido Comunista del Uruguay (Communist Party of Uruguay) led by Eduardo Lorier
 * Corriente 78 (Current 78)
 * Nuevo Espacio (New Space) led by Rafael Michelini
 * Vertiente Artiguista (Artiguist Stream) led by Enrique Rubio
 * Movimiento de Participación Popular (Movement of Popular Participation) led by Lucía Topolansky
 * Partido Demócrata Cristiano del Uruguay (Christian Democratic Party of Uruguay)
 * Partido de los Comunes (Party of the Communes)
 * Confluencia Frenteamplio (Broad Front Confluence)
 * Alianza Progresista (Progressive Alliance) led by Rodolfo Nin Novoa

Splits
Along its history, despite the fact of constantly attracting political factions from other parties, the Broad Front suffered some splits as well:
 * In 1989, the Party for the Government of the People and the Christian Democratic Party of Uruguay left the Broad Front to conform a new moderate-left coalition.
 * In 1993, the extreme-leftist Oriental Revolutionary Movement split and formed a political party on its own.
 * In April 2006 there was another split from the extreme left: the March 26 Movement and other groups left and formed a new coalition, Popular Assembly.

Ideology
The Broad Front consists primarily of progressive political parties. However, in government it has tended to follow policies favouring a market economy with expanded social programs. Not all the parties in the Broad Front can be considered left-wing, indeed some lean towards fiscal conservatism or social conservatism. Uruguay Assembly of Danilo Astori can be considered a centrist party and Astori has followed fiscal conservative policies as finance minister, whereas the Christian Democratic Party is vocally opposed to abortion. Tabaré Vázquez during his presidency maintained his pro-life stance, in contrast to the stance of many in his own Socialist Party, leading him to leave his positions in the party.

See Wikipedia article for election results.