page_title: Popular Will
section_title: Background and foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Popular Will / History / Background and foundation
caption_attribution_description: English: Leopoldo Lopez speaking to a crowd.
context_page_description: Popular Will is a political party in Venezuela founded by former Mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo López, who is its national co-ordinator. The party describes itself as progressive and social-democratic and was admitted into the Socialist International in December 2014. The party currently holds 14 out of 167 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly, the country's parliament, and is a member of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, the electoral coalition that currently holds a plurality in the National Assembly.
  The party was formed in reaction to alleged infringements of individual freedom and human rights on the part of the government of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. The party attempts to bring together Venezuelans of various backgrounds who consider Chavismo oppressive and authoritarian. Popular Will self-identifies itself as "a pluralist and democratic movement" that is committed to "progress," which it defines as the realization of "the social, economic, political, and human rights of every Venezuelan."
  The party says its "fundamental pillars" are progress, democracy, and social action.
context_section_description: Popular Will traces its roots to the Popular Networks (Redes Populares) formed in 2004 as a means of promoting social action and leadership. The year 2007 saw the formation of the so-called "2D" opposition movement, which considered the constitutional referendum called by Hugo Chávez an attempt to impose dictatorship on the country.
  This was followed in 2009 by the formation of the Social Action (Accion Social) movement, which brought together "youths, workers, community leaders, business people, and politicians."
  On December 5, 2009, López, along with the other leaders of other political parties, Un Nuevo Tiempo, Primero Justicia, and Acción Democrática, officially announced the formation of the Popular Will Movement (Movimiento Voluntad Popular) at a forum in Valencia, Carabobo.
  The National Electoral Council, on February 1, 2010, refused to allow the group to call itself Movimiento Voluntad Popular, supposedly because of the similarity between this name and that of the Movimiento Base Popular, a regional political party in Apure. This frustrated the party's desire to field candidates in the 2010 parliamentary election; nonetheless, three party members won election to the National Assembly, two of them with the support of the Coalition for Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD).
  On January 14, 2011, the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (Consejo Nacional Electoral) formally accepted Popular Will as a legitimate political party. This was followed by an unprecedented event in Venezuelan political history, namely the choice of a party's officials in open elections, which were held on July 10, 2011. Later, MUD candidates for the presidency and state government offices were selected in primaries that took place on February 12, 2012. Leopoldo López had retired himself and supported Henrique Capriles Radonski who was elected as the MUD candidate for presidential election of October 7, 2012. Hugo Chávez was reelected as president and the party received 471,677 votes. In the regional elections on December 16, 2012, the party was established as the fourth largest party in MUD coalition and as the sixth nationwide. The youth leader, David Smolansky, won the 2013 municipal election for mayor of the municipality of El Hatillo in Miranda State.
caption: Leopoldo López in 2012
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