Popular Unity Candidates

The Popular Unity Candidatures (Catalan: Candidatures d'Unitat Popular) are independentist candidatures running in the territorial frame which they define as "Catalan Countries". These candidatures focus their political action on municipalities.

These candidates are not organized as the traditional political parties do, but are instead based on deliberative democracy; different PUCs may have differences amongst themselves, with their common ground being Catalan independence from a straightforward left wing position, often the ones of Eco-socialism or Libertarian socialism. Many of these candidates are formed by people formerly related to Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya who have become disenchanted by the latter coalition's pacts with the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya and Iniciativa per Catalunya, which, in their opinion, debase the nature of left wing Catalan independence as originally formulated by ERC.

The different locally raised candidatures are coordinated around the Municipality Assembly of the Independentist Left (AMEI in Catalan) where the working and ideological proposals of their programs are discussed. Their lines are centered upon deepening participative democracy, improving social equality, "the national building of the Catalan Countries", promotion of sustainability politics and associative network.

Their present incarnation first appeared in 2000, with their precedents being similar candidates that appeared in 1979 during the first Spanish municipality elections after Francisco Franco's death, which were especially critical of the direction taken during the Spanish Transition.

Currently, they hold a total of 26 council seats on 17 different municipalities in Catalonia, these were achieved either under the CUP name only or in coalition with local political parties.