The Divided Right-Wing: 1938-1953
In the 1938 presidential election, the right-wing candidate, Gustavo Ross, supported by the Liberal and Conservative Parties, was defeated by Pedro Aguirre Cerda. Conservatives and Liberals were by now very similar ideologically, but they refused to unite. Additionally, despite the formation of the Falange Nacional, some social-Christians remained in the Conservative Party.
The 1942 presidential election were another divisive moment for the right. Both the Conservative and Liberal parties agreed to support the candidacy of Carlos Ibáñez. However, the pro-Alessandri elements in both parties refused to do so, arguing Ibáñez was an ambitious former dictator. These groups broke away and formed the Movimiento Liberal Antifascista (Liberal Anti-Fascist Movement), and supported the left-wing candidate Juan Antonio Ríos, who won.
The Liberal and Conservative parties were unable to agree ona single candidate for the 1946 presidential election. The Conservatives presented Eduardo Cruz-Coke, who finished in second-place after radical Gabriel González Videla. During González's presidency, the Conservatives enjoyed a brief stay in power when González broke with the communists that had supported him.
In 1949, the Conservative Party ceased to exist. The social-Christian elements created the Social Christian Conservative Party and their opponents created the Traditionalist Conservative Party. In the 1952 presidential election, the Traditionalist Conservatives and the Liberal Party presented Arturo Matte as their candidate, while the Falange Nacional, the Radical Party, and the Social Christian Conservative Party supported Pedro Alfonso. Both lost to independent Carlos Ibáñez.
Read more about this topic: Conservative Party (Chile)
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“Errors are more numerous than truths, but fortunately too divided among themselves to take power.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)