Republican Left of the Valencian Country

Republican Left of the Valencian Country (Catalan: Esquerra Republicana del País Valencià, ERPV) is a Valencian left nationalist and republican party.

Republican Left of the Valencian Country Esquerra Republicana del País Valencià
President	Josep Manel Barberà i Sorlí
Secretary-General	Núria Arnau
Founded	2000
Headquarters	C/Erudit Orellana, 10-1 València, Spain
Ideology	Catalan nationalism Valencian nationalism Left-wing nationalism Catalan independence Republicanism Democratic socialism Països Catalans
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
National affiliation	Republican Left of Catalonia
Regional affiliation	Acord Ciutadà (2015)
European affiliation	European Free Alliance
Colours	Orange
Local Government	20 / 5,784
Website
locals.esquerra.cat/paisvalencia/
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

The original ERPV was founded in 1933, then disbanded in 1935. In 2000 the vacant ERPV name was taken by the party resulting from the merge of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya's (ERC) Valencian section and the Front pel País Valencià (Front for the Valencian Country).

ERPV is currently the main explicit sponsor of the Catalan Countries independence in the Valencian Country, where poor electoral results so far limit its participation to a marginal role.

History

Foundation and disbandment

The party was founded during the Spanish Second Republic and became established under the leadership of Gaietà Huguet, in Castellón. In 1935, he impelled a merging with the party Esquerra Valenciana (Valencian Left, EV), founded in 1934 and led by Vicent Marco Miranda (ex-Mayor of Valencia), Josep Benedito, Miquel Duran de València and Manuel Sanchís-Guarner. After Vicent Marco obtained in 1936 the act of deputy in Valencia within the candidatures of the Popular Front both parties joint in a common parliamentary group in the Spanish Congress with the name of Catalan Left.

In 1935, ERPV disbanded and merged as a fraction in EV. The Spanish Civil War truncated many political projects in which Esquerra Valenciana participated, the most important of which was a project of a Valencian statute of autonomy with the official name of País Valencià (rendered in English by some as "Valencian Country", see names of the Valencian Community), which would have granted similar autonomous powers as with the other so-called historical nationalities in Spain (namely, Andalusia, Basque country, Catalonia and Galicia). In spite of it, Esquerra Valenciana, the main party in which ERPV had diluted, reached their maximum growth in that period, arriving to exceed 10,000 affiliated.

Under the regime of Francisco Franco, Esquerra Valenciana (the party which ERPV had merged with in 1935) was suppressed. Then, after Franco's death, the Spanish Transition and the advent of democracy in Spain, ERPV was not revived.

Refoundation

In 2000, a group of members of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in Valencia, decided to revive the ERPV vacant acronym and, led by Agustí Cerdà, claimed to have refounded the party as the Valencian branch of ERC.

Electoral results

Then, 2003 saw ERPV's comeback to democratic elections in the Valencian Community, after more than 60 years of its last electoral contest. The party participated in elections to a number of Valencian city councils. It did not achieve representation elsewhere other than in Sueca.

ERPV ran in the 2007 election to the Corts Valencianes under the "Esquerra" name, achieving 0.49% of the total votes which was far from the 5% threshold needed to achieve representation. Out of a total of 5,622 local councilors elected in the 542 Valencian municipalities, ERPV is currently represented by four local councilors in three municipalities, which limits its participation in Valencian politics to a marginal role.

Despite its status in Valencia, at the 2004 Spanish general election ERPV's leader Agustí Cerdà was elected as an MP himself at the Spanish Parliament. This was made possible by including him in the ERC electoral ticket in Catalonia instead of running for any given Valencian electoral constituency, where ERPV does not achieve any representation other than the few councilors aforementioned.

Then, at the following 2008 Spanish general election, which saw ERC's results halved in Catalonia, Agustí Cerdà was one of the incumbents who lost his seat.

Corts Valencianes

Date	Votes			Seats		Status	Size
	#	%	±pp	#	±
2003	7,609	0.3%	—	0 / 89	—	N/A	6th
2007	11,686	0.5%	+0.2	0 / 99	0	N/A	6th
2011	11,129	0.5%	±0.0	0 / 99	0	N/A	8th
2015	106,917	4.3%	N/A	0 / 99	0	N/A	*
2019	5,069	0.2%	N/A	0 / 99	0	N/A	10th

• * Within Acord Ciutadà.

See also

• Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)

External links

• Republican Left of Catalonia
• Republican Left of the Valencian Country