CiU is a federation of two parties: Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC). CDC is the major partner of the coalition and UDC the minor. Traditionally CDC is a center-right nationalist party. In the last years under Artur Mas the party has shifted to sovereignism and economic liberalism or fiscally conservative policies. During the Jordi Pujol era, CiU was very ambigous about independence and its goals were very pragmatic and focused in the self-government and devolution. Now that's history. UDC is a nationalist Christian Democrat party, more conservative than CDC in social policies and slightly less sovereignist. It's leader, Josep Antoni Durán i Lleida, has stated before that he doesn't support catalan independency but favours a confederal model of State with great powers to Catalonia. In the present-day scenary I don't know if the UDC's confederalism or the PSC's traditional federalism have room in Catalonia. Ironically Mas and the PP's government in Madrid share the same views in economics, obviously the "national question" divide them.
And Hash, the other thread we're discussing this is technically basque and galician. Plus it's a new political moment, so this thread can live IMO.
I think that it's better if the Basque, Galician and Catalan elections are merged in one thread.
By the way, the pollster that works for La Razón is not too much reliable; some people think that the polls published in the conservative newspaper are fictional. I remember a poll before the last General Election showing PP in the second place in Catalonia ahead of CiU. The nationalist federation won the plurality of the catalan votes on November 2011.
