Ho volem tot! La CUP y la articulación del independentismo de izquierda radical en Cataluña

Abstract

This article analyses the political and organizational evolution of the Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (Popular Unity Candidature, CUP), a secessionist and radical left party from Catalonia that has been widely featured as a movement party (e. g., Kitschelt, 2006). The main aims of the article are to assess its main features, and to point out the factors that might contribute to understand why this party has been able to adapt itself without major organizational transformations, to quite important challenges in its short lifespan, such as its breakthrough in Catalonia's regional parliament (2012-2015) or the relevance threshold achieved by becoming a key parliamentary partner of the Catalan government (2015-2017). The main explanation to this phenomenon has to do with the importance of several (local and regional) internal groups integrating the party and, particularly, with the difficulties to find consensual solutions to settle their internal differences. Because these internal factors have so far limited external pressures for change and the institutionalization of the party, the CUP's findings might help to better understand the peculiarities of the party movement model, as well as its conditions of stability and party change.