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Traditionally an ideologically diverse party it nowadays sits in the centre-right side of the political spectrum. Their current position in the Uruguayan political landscape is conditioned by the coalition they have formed with their historic adversary, the National Party, in opposition to the Broad Front (Frente Amplio), the latter being a leftist coalition formed in the early 1970s that has become, since the 1999 election, the most-voted electoral force in the country, reshaping Uruguayan electoral politics and displacing the Colorado Party from its traditional position of dominance to becoming the third party in the country, behind the National Party.
The Colorado Party has traditionally been an ideologically diverse party, with one study from the 1950s noting that "the liberal ideological position assumed by the Colorado. a half-century ago under the drive of Batlle has forced the Blancos or Nationalists to become more relatively conservative in position. On the part of both major parties, however, many inconsistencies and many ideological subdivisions, temporary or permanent, occur. Each of the large parties has its conservatives and its liberals, and party lines are often difficult to hold in congressional debate.”[8]
History
Its existence can be traced back to the origins of the Uruguayan republic, in the 1830s, and since then until the late 1990s it remained the most dominant political party in the country, holding power almost uninterruptedly (alternating with the National Party, its greatest rival) until its electoral collapse in the 2004 elections, when the Party obtained only 10% of the vote.[9]
During the first third of the 20th century, and under the stewardship and legacy of José Batlle y Ordóñez (1856-1929), the largest sectors of the Colorado Party stood for a radical agenda of social reform, including the promotion of workers’ rights, women’s rights, statism and the ample provision of public services, democratic political reform and regular use of direct democracy mechanisms, secularization, and the establishment of a generous welfare state.[10] During the 1940s and 1950s, led by Luis Batlle Berres (nephew of José Batlle) this Batllista wing of the Colorado Party stood also for state-led industrialization efforts and an economic dirigiste regime. In the late 1960s, though, the Party began to abandon the most radical part of that social agenda (as well as the dirigiste approach to economic matters) and now stands in the center, center-right of the Uruguayan political spectrum.
At the 2004 national elections, the Colorado Party won 10 seats out of 99 in the Chamber of Representatives and 3 seats out of 31 in the Senate. Its presidential candidate, Guillermo Stirling, won 10.4% of the popular vote and placed third, ending the 10-year rule of the Colorado Party and the two-party system.[11]
Since then, the Colorados have been able to recuperate some of their lost support, but as of 2024 they haven’t reached the 20% threshold in any of the elections celebrated in that period (2009, 2014, 2019, 2024).
The party has historically been the most elected party in Uruguayan history with almost uninterrupted dominance during the 20th century. The Colorados were in office from 1865 to 1959, when they were defeated by the Partido Nacional in the 1958 elections. They returned to office after the 1966 elections. They won the first elections at the end of the military dictatorship, in 1984. They went on to win the 1994 and 1999 elections.
Traditional rivals
From its birth until the last decades of the 20th century its traditional rival was the conservativePartido Nacional (also called Partido Blanco).
Post-2004: defeat at polls and rise of Pedro Bordaberry
The Colorado Party suffered its worst defeat ever in the 2004 national elections, with little over 10 per cent of the popular vote for its presidential candidate Guillermo Stirling, and having only three out of thirty national Senators. There were many reasons for the party's failure, including the economic crisis and old party leaders. Subsequently to his defeat in 2004, Guillermo Stirling endorsed Pedro Bordaberry's Vamos Uruguay movement. Bordaberry Herrán became the presidential candidate for the 2009 presidential election, and placed third, with 17 percent of the vote, behind José Mujica and Luis Alberto Lacalle. Bordaberry Herrán placed third again in the 2014 presidential election, with 13% of the vote.
Under the electoral system in place at the time called Ley de Lemas system, each political party could have as many as three presidential candidates. The combined result of the votes for a party's candidates determined which party would control the executive branch, and whichever of the winning party's candidates finished in first place would be declared President this system was used form the 1942 election until the 1994 election until in 1996, a referendum amended the constitution to restrict each party to a single presidential candidate, effective from the 1999 elections.
Blair, Laurence (25 October 2024). "Uruguay's 2024 Election: What to Know". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 19 February 2025. Long-shot contenders include Andrés Ojeda, 40, a lawyer, member of the conservative Colorado Party and regular guest on talk shows who has tried to appeal to younger voters.
"Uruguayans vote in presidential run-off with leftist bloc aiming for win". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 19 February 2025. Orsi, who has pledged a "modern left" policy approach, won 43.9 percent of the October vote for the Broad Front and will face Delgado, who secured 26.8 percent but also has the backing of the conservative Colorado Party that together with his National Party made up almost 42 percent of votes
Gaudan, Andracs (18 December 2015). "Uruguayan's Governing Alliance Deeply Divided over Foreign Policy". NotiSur (Article). Nearly a half-century ago, Uruguay, led at the time by the conservative Partido Colorado (PC), gaveup what until recently had been its last executive position in an intergovernmental organization.In 1968, and after 12 years with the Organization of American States (OAS), jurist José Mora Oterostepped down as secretary general amid a wave of criticism for the institutional and personalsupport he gave to the US invasion and military occupation (1965-1966) of the Dominican Republic.
"Revista Académica"(PDF). Universidad de San Pablo (8). Tucumán, Argentina: Instituto de Estudios Sociales, Política y Cultura. October 2019. ISSN2525-1600. Similarly, all voters with an ideological positioning between 5.32 and 7.49 will likely vote for center-right Partido Nacional and all voters positioning between 7.50 and 10 for the right-wing Partido Colorado.
Martínez, Magdalena (1 July 2019). "Unas primarias tensas anticipan la renovación política en Uruguay". El País (in Spanish). ISSN1134-6582. Retrieved 19 February 2025. La principal novedad que dejaba el escrutinio del domingo fue la rotunda victoria de Ernesto Talvi dentro del Partido Colorado (derecha) frente al dos veces presidente Julio María Sanguinetti.[The main news from Sunday's vote count was the resounding victory of Ernesto Talvi within the Colorado Party (right-wing) against two-time president Julio María Sanguinetti.]
"Así ocurrió: Tabaré Vázquez y Luis Lacalle Pou reconocen segunda vuelta en elecciones en Uruguay". BBC News (in Spanish). 26 October 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2025. El tercer candidato más votado, Pedro Bordaberry, del Partido Colorado (derecha), concedió la derrota y dio su apoyo a Lacalle Pou.[The third most voted candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, of the Colorado Party (right-wing), conceded defeat and gave his support to Lacalle Pou.]
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