Social Christian Unity Party

The Social Christian Unity Party (lang es) is a centre right political party in Costa Rica. 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 2006, 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 Libertation Party (PLN) started as early as 1973. Yet, wasn’t until 1977 that four political parties; 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. The Coalition not only achieved the Presidency but also a non PLN parliamentary majority for the first time since PLN's foundation. Yet, Carazo's administration was very unpopular due to the 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 PLN obtaining a landslide victory. Even though, Unity remained as the second political force. A second primary was held on June 1993 between Rodríguez and Juan José Trejos (son of former president José Joaquín Trejos), this time Rodríguez turned victorious with 75% but lost to PLN's candidate José María Figueres in 1994. All of them 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 State's corporations. The scandals even caused Calderón and Rodríguez to be arrested, prosecuted and in Calderón's case condemned, while Figueres wasn’t arrested as he was in a non extraditable country. Rodríguez was acquitted on a technicality.

The party's candidate in 2006 right after the scandals was Pacheco's Prime Minister Ricardo Toledo. Toledo received only 3% 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 PLN and replacing PUSC as PLN's main rival. PUSC also passed 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 nominee was former Vice President Luis Fishman. Fishman was the first Jewish presidential candidate in Costa Rica's history and gained 5% of the votes keeping the 5 seats. Piza obtained only 6% of the vote (as slight improvement) and was the fifth candidate in popular vote, but most notable was PUSC's increase in the parliamentary vote becoming the fourth most voted party surpassing Libertarian Movement (till then normally the third largest party since 2006) and increasing its legislative caucus from six to eight seats. In 2015 Calderón and his followers left the party and founded a new one called Social Christian Republican Party (an allusion to Calderón's father historical party). Nevertheless, PUSC saw a victory in the 2016 municipal election gaining second place in municipal votes surpassing ruling PAC and receiving much more votes than Calderón's new party. PUSC obtained 15 mayors (second in number after PLN) and saw an increase in its electoral support, unlike PLN that although the more voted party did saw a decrease in support. 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.

ElectionCandidateFirst roundSecond roundVotes%PositionResultVotes%PositionResult 1986 Rafael Ángel Calderón 542,434 45.77% 2nd colspan=4 1990 694,589 51.51% 1st colspan=4 1994 Miguel Ángel Rodríguez 711,328 47.74% 2nd colspan=4 1998 652,160 46.96% 1st colspan=4 2002 Abel Pacheco 590,277 38.58% 1st – 776,278 57.95 1st 2006 Ricardo Toledo 57,655 3.55% 4th colspan=4 2010 Luis Fishman 71,330 3.86% 4th colspan=4 2014 Rodolfo Piza 123,653 6.02% 5th colspan=4 2018 344,595 15.99% 4th colspan=4 2022 Lineth Saborío 259,767 12.40% 5th colspan=4

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