The FRAP was a Chilean left-wing coalition of parties

Politics of Chile

The politics of Chile takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Chile is both head of state and head of government, and of a formal multi-party system that in practice behaves like a two-party one, due to binominalism. Executive power...

 from 1956 to 1969. It presented twice a common candidate, Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....

, for the 1958

Chilean presidential election, 1958

A presidential election was held in Chile on September 4, 1958. Because none of the candidates obtained an absolute majority needed to win outright, a confirmation by Congress was carried out on October 24, 1958 to declare the winner.-Election:...

 and the 1964 presidential elections

Chilean presidential election, 1964

A presidential election was held in Chile on September 4, 1964. Christian Democratic candidate Eduardo Frei Montalva won the election by an absolute majority....

. Succeeding to the FRENAP formed the preceding year, the FRAP itself was succeeded by the Popular Unity

Popular Unity

Unidad Popular was a coalition of left wing, socialist and communist political parties in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election....

 coalition.

Composition of the coalition

The FRAP succeeded to the FRENAP (Frente Nacional del Pueblo, People's National Front), formed the following year by a coalition of the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCC). The new coalition, created on February 28, 1956, as a platform of movements struggling for an "anti-imperialist, anti-oligarch

Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...

 and anti-feudal program." Apart of the Socialist and the Communist parties, the FRAP included: the Popular Socialist Party (until its merger in 1957 with the PS; the People's Democratic Party

People's Democratic Party

People's Democratic Party could refer to:* People's Democratic Party * Eelam People's Democratic Party * Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party * People's Democratic Party * People's Democratic Party...

 (Partido Demócrático del Pueblo), which merged in 1960 with the PS to form the PADENA (which in turn withdrew itself from the FRAP coalition in 1965); the Vanguardia Nacional del Pueblo (National Vanguard of the People), which had been created in 1958 from a merger of minor groups such as the Labour Party (1953) and others; and the Social Democracy, founded in 1965.

Strategy

Despite their alliances, tensions separated the Socialists and the Communists. For the first one, the coalition was a "Labour Front", formed exclusively of working classes' parties struggling to defend their interests, while for the latter, it was rather a "National Liberation Front," that is a legal means to accede to power through elections, in alliance with "bourgeois parties" such as the Radical Party

Radical Party (Chile)

The Radical Party of Chile was a Chilean political party. It was formed in 1863 by a split in the Liberal Party. Not coincidently, it was formed shortly after the organization of the Grand Lodge of Chile, and it has maintained a close relationship with Chilean Freemasonry throughout its life...

 and the Christian Democrat Party who would united in a common national emancipation program and social and political democratization program.

See also

• Democratic Front of Chile
  Democratic Front of Chile
  The Democratic Front of Chile was a center-right coalition in Chile between 1962 and 1964. It was composed of the United Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and the Radical Party ....
  
   (its right-wing opponent)
• Presidential Republic Era (1924-1973)