History
National Renewal was formed in 29 April 1987 when three rightist organizations — the National Union Movement (Movimiento de Unión Nacional MUN), the National Labour Front (Frente Nacional del Trabajo FNT), and the Independent Democratic Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente UDI) — joined together in preparation for the 1988 Plebiscite that would determine the continuity or not of rule of Augusto Pinochet who had been in power since the coup of 1973. The UDI soon broke away to run as a separate party due to its strong support for the plebiscite and a Pinochet candidacy, while the remaining National Renewal party indicated its preference for an open election or a candidate other than Pinochet. However, once Pinochet was proclaimed candidate, the overwhelming majority of National Renewal supported him.
The party was founded on April 29 with 351 founding members. In this way, National Renewal was the first political party to form in Chile after the lifting on the ban of political parties that had been established after the coup; by December of that year, 61,167 members, led by Andrés Allamand, had joined. The principal idea that the party proclaimed was to generate an environment of calm during the return of democracy. The party supported UDI candidate Joaquín Lavín as the sole Alliance candidate in the 1999/2000 presidential elections, who went on to obtain 47.5% of the votes in the first round, but was subsequently defeated in the second round by Ricardo Lagos.
During early 2005, the party initially supported Lavín to again run as the sole candidate of the Alliance in the presidential election of that year. However, in face of Lavin's declining opinion poll numbers, Sebastián Piñera announced his candidacy as the National Renewal candidate thus ensuring that the Alliance have two candidates for the election. In the first round on 11 December, Piñera obtained 25.4% of the vote, which was enough to send him to the run-off on 15 January 2006 with Michelle Bachelet. With 46.5% of the vote, Piñera was defeated by Bachelet.
In the legislative elections, also on 11 December 2005, the party won, as part of the Alliance for Chile, 20 out of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and currently holds 7 out of 38 seats in the Senate.
In the parliamentary elections, also on 13 December 2009, the party gains, as part of the Coalition for Change, 18 out of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile and currently has 8 out of 38 seats in the Senate of Chile.
In the 2010 presidential election, Sebastián Piñera was elected president of Chile.
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