The Catalan European Democratic Party (, PDeCAT, sometimes stylized as PDECat), initially branded as the Catalan Democratic Party (, PDC), was a liberal political party in Spain that supported Catalan independence. The party was founded in Barcelona on 10 July 2016 and dissolved on 28 October 2023. PDeCAT was regarded as the successor party to Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), which for most its history was a constituent party of the Convergence and Union (CiU) political formation.
The party declared to have 14,000 members in the 2018–2019 period, but this number has recently been revised down to figures as low as 5,000 as a result of internal infighting over former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont's strategy and a number of party splits.
History
Early development
Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) held its last congress on 8 July 2016, in which CDC's members agreed to its "refoundation" into a new political party, whose founding congress was held in the course of the same assembly from 8 to 10 July. The reasoning behind the re-branding process often cited the presenting of a renewed trademark and a desire to disassociate the party from CDC's corruption problems, including those of its founder, Jordi Pujol, which occurred during its dominance of Catalan regional politics.
Two names were commissioned to a communication company and initially floated for the new party: "More Catalonia" () and "Convergent Catalans" (), but both were rejected by the party's membership who perceived them as artificial and "soulless". On 9 July, three other proposals were presented: "Together for Catalonia" (), "Catalan Democratic Party" () and "Catalan National Party" (). In the last voting held on 10 July, "Catalan Democratic Party" topped the ballot in a 871–657 vote against "Catalan National Party". In the new party's leadership election held on 23–24 July, Artur Mas became president—continuing on the role he held in CDC—Neus Munté was elected as vice-president and Marta Pascal was appointed to the newly-created post of coordinator-general.
Spain's interior ministry announced the difficulty of registering the party under such name, since it could be confused with Democrats of Catalonia (DC), an existing political party which had been one of CDC's partners in the Junts pel Sí electoral alliance; this fact had already prevented a 2015 registered of a different political organization under the name "Democratic Party of Catalonia". DC's spokesman, Antoni Castellà, threatened in August that "if the PDC does not change its label, then there will be conflict within Junts pel Sí". On 20 September the party announced that it would attempt to register the party under the "Catalan European Democratic Party", but since it could result in potential conflict as well (the name "Catalan Party of Europe" had been registered by Pasqual Maragall in July 1998) the names "Catalan National Party", "Together for Catalonia", "More Catalonia" and "Catalan Democratic Pact" were also registered in case the new name was to be rejected by the interior ministry as well. The interior ministry ended up accepting the new proposed name under the PDeCAT label on 29 September, and it was subsequently ratified by party members in a ballot conducted on 21–22 October 2016.