Social Christian Unity Party

Social Christian Unity Party Partido Unidad Social Cristiana
President	Juan Carlos Hidalgo
Secretary-General	Ana Cristina Valdelomar
Treasurer	David Rodríguez
Founded	17 December 1983
Preceded by	Unity Coalition
Ideology	Christian democracy Liberal conservatism Historical: Christian socialism[1] Calderonism[1]
Political position	Centre-right Historical: Left-wing[1]
Regional affiliation	Christian Democrat Organization of America Union of Latin American Parties
International affiliation	International Democracy Union
Colours	Blue and Red
Legislative Assembly	1 / 57
Mayors	19 / 84
Alderpeople	99 / 508
Syndics	95 / 486
District councillors	375 / 1,944
Intendants	1 / 8
Party flag
Website
www.unidad.cr
Politics of Costa Rica Political parties Elections

The Social Christian Unity Party (Spanish: Partido Unidad Social Cristiana) is a centre-right political party in Costa Rica.^[2]

PUSC considers itself a Christian-democratic party and, as such, is a member of the Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA). It was founded in 1983 by merger of the parties that were part of the Unity Coalition: the Christian Democratic, the Republican Calderonista, People's Union and the Democratic Renovation Party. Its historical roots are in Calderonism, i.e. the movement of supporters of Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, who was the country's president in the 1940s. From its foundation until the 2000s, the PUSC was one of Costa Rica's two dominant parties, alongside the National Liberation Party. It provided three presidents: Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (1990–94), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998–2002) and Abel Pacheco (2002–06).

Negotiations among the main right-wing opposition parties to create a political force capable of confronting the National Liberation Party (PLN) started as early as 1973, yet it wasn’t until 1977 that four political parties, the People's Union (liberal), Christian Democratic Party (Christian democracy), Republican Calderonista (Calderonism) and Democratic Renovation (social democracy) united forces in the Unity Coalition. After a primary election Rodrigo Carazo became the alliance's nominee, gaining victory in the 1978 general election.^[3] The Coalition not only achieved the Presidency but also a non-PLN parliamentary majority for the first time since the PLN's foundation. Yet, Carazo's administration was very unpopular due to the 1978–1982 economic crisis and the tensions with neighbor Nicaragua due to Costa Rica's support of the rebel guerrilla FSLN. Thus, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, the Coalition's candidate in the 1982 general election, suffered a debacle, gaining only 33% of the votes and the PLN obtaining a landslide victory. However, Unity remained as the second political force.^[3]

On 17 December 1983, the four parties merged into the Social Christian Unity Party, not without certain controversy especially among certain factions in the Democratic Renovation. Costa Rica's law required for every party in the coalition to merge in order to be valid and also to be able of receiving the so call “political debt” (state contributions to parties after the election proportional to their electoral support). After a series of complex sessions, Democratic Renovation's National Assembly finally agreed by a slight majority to merge and PUSC was born, with Costa Rica passing from a dominant-party system into a two-party system with PLN and PUSC as the main political forces.

PUSC's first primary was held on 27 February 1989. Calderón Fournier faced Miguel Ángel Rodríguez with Calderón winning with 75% of the votes. Calderón, as the son of Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, the historical leader of Calderonism and the social reforms of the 1940s,^[3] was seen as the most representative leader of PUSC, while Rodríguez came from the liberal faction inside the party. This division between liberals and calderonistas would remain for decades.^[3]

In the 1990 election, following the aforementioned primary, Calderón won the presidency over the PLN's candidate Carlos Manuel Castillo.^[4]

A second primary was held in June 1993 between Rodríguez and Juan José Trejos (son of former president José Joaquín Trejos). This time, Rodríguez turned victorious with 75% of the vote but lost the presidential election to the PLN's candidate José María Figueres in 1994.^[3]

With Rodríguez as candidate again, the party did win both the presidency and a parliamentary majority in the 1998 election, this time without the need for primaries.^[3]

The next primary was held on 10 June 2001 between then deputy and TV personality Dr. Abel Pacheco de la Espriella and former minister Rodolfo Mendez Mata. Even though Mata was endorsed by Calderón, Pacheco won the primary with 76% of the votes. Pacheco won the 2002 presidential election over PLN's candidate Rolando Araya, making it the first time a party other than the PLN was kept in power for two consecutive terms since 1948.^[3]

In 2004–2005, a series of corruption scandals involved three former presidents of Costa Rica: Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría and José María Figueres Olsen.^[5] All of them were suspects of bribery and enticement. They were accused of receiving money in exchange for guaranteeing very profitable contracts between private companies Alcatel and Fischel with the state's corporations.^[6] The scandals even caused Calderón and Rodríguez to be arrested, prosecuted and in Calderón's case condemned,^[7] while Figueres wasn’t arrested as he was in a non-extraditable country. Rodríguez was acquitted on a technicality.^[8][9]

The party's candidate in 2006 right after the scandals was Pacheco's Prime Minister Ricardo Toledo. Toledo received only 3.6% of the votes, an unthinkable result for what was once one of Costa Rica's main parties. Anti-corruption party Citizens' Action saw an increase in its support, receiving almost as many votes as the PLN and replacing the PUSC as the PLN's main rival. The PUSC also dropped from 17 to 5 seats after the 2006 parliamentary election and from 58 to 9 mayors in that year's municipal election.

In 2010, the party's presidential nominee was former Vice President Luis Fishman. Fishman was the first Jewish presidential candidate in Costa Rica's history and gained 4% of the votes, keeping the party's 5 seats in the legislature.^[3]

In 2013 Calderón suggested Dr. Rodolfo Hernández, then director of Costa Rica's Children's Hospital, as 2014's presidential nominee. Hernández faced former minister in Miguel Ángel Rodríguez’ cabinet Rodolfo Piza in the 2013 party primary showing, again, the traditional fight between the Calderonist and Liberal factions (the liberals having control over the National Committee). Hernández won with 75% of the votes. Hernández received very good support and for a while was the second most popular candidate after PLN's Johnny Araya. However, Hernández resigned as candidate on 3 October 2013 alleging constant backstabbing and treacheries from the PUSC's authorities, so the party's nomination was taken by Rodolfo Piza.^[10][11] Piza obtained only 6% of the vote and was the fifth candidate in the popular vote, but most notable was the PUSC's increase in the parliamentary vote, becoming the fourth most voted party, surpassing the Libertarian Movement (until then the third-largest party since 2006) and increasing its legislative caucus to eight seats.^[12]

In 2015, Calderón and his followers left the party and founded a new one called the Social Christian Republican Party (an allusion to Calderón's father's historical party). Nevertheless, the PUSC saw a good performance in the 2016 municipal election, gaining second place in municipal votes, surpassing the ruling PAC and receiving much more votes than Calderón's new party. The PUSC obtained 15 mayors (second in number after the PLN) and saw an increase in its electoral support, unlike PLN that although the more voted party saw a decrease in support.^[13]

In 2016, the PUSC declared themselves in favor of equal rights for same-sex couples in terms of marital property, insurance with the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and death inheritance, while still not supporting same-sex marriage.^[14]

For the 2018 general election, the party again ran Rodolfo Piza as its presidential candidate, finishing in an improved fourth place with 15.99% of the vote. The party also improved its legislative seat count from eight to nine. In the 2022 general election, the party nominated Lineth Saborío Chaverri for president, finishing in 5th place, and maintained its nine legislative seats.

The party nominated Juan Carlos Hidalgo for president in the 2026 general election. In this election, the party's support collapsed, receiving only 2.66% of the presidential vote and falling to only one legislative seat, the worst result in the party's history.

Election	Candidate	First round				Second round
		Votes	%	Position	Result	Votes	%	Position	Result
1986	Rafael Ángel Calderón	542,434	45.77%	2nd	Lost	—N/a
1990		694,589	51.51%	1st	Won	—N/a
1994	Miguel Ángel Rodríguez	711,328	47.74%	2nd	Lost	—N/a
1998		652,160	46.96%	1st	Won	—N/a
2002	Abel Pacheco	590,277	38.58%	1st	–	776,278	57.95	1st	Won
2006	Ricardo Toledo	57,655	3.55%	4th	Lost	—N/a
2010	Luis Fishman	71,330	3.86%	4th	Lost	—N/a
2014	Rodolfo Piza	123,653	6.02%	5th	Lost	—N/a
2018		344,595	15.99%	4th	Lost	—N/a
2022	Lineth Saborío	259,767	12.40%	5th	Lost	—N/a
2026	Juan Carlos Hidalgo	68,188	2.66%	5th	Lost	—N/a

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
1986	Rafael Ángel Calderón	485,860	41.4%	25 / 57	New	2nd	Opposition
1990		617,478	46.2%	29 / 57	4	1st	Government
1994	Miguel Ángel Rodríguez	595,802	40.4%	25 / 57	4	2nd	Opposition
1998		569,792	41.2%	27 / 57	2	1st	Government
2002	Abel Pacheco	453,201	29.8%	19 / 57	8	1st	Government
2006	Ricardo Toledo	126,284	7.8%	5 / 57	14	4th	Opposition
2010	Luis Fishman	155,047	8.2%	6 / 57	1	4th	Opposition
2014	Rodolfo Piza	205,247	10.1%	8 / 57	2	4th	Crossbench
2018		312,097	14.6%	9 / 57	1	4th	Opposition
2022	Lineth Saborío	236,941	11.4%	9 / 57	0	3rd	Opposition
2026	Juan Carlos Hidalgo	115,135	4.52%	1 / 57	8	5th	Opposition

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