Political hegemony
Until their split in June 2015, the CiU alliance would dominate Catalan regional politics from the 1980s to the early 2000s, providing for Jordi Pujol's long stay in the regional government for 23 consecutive years, until a left-wing alliance comprising the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV) was able to oust CiU from government and into opposition. It would not be until the 2010 Catalan regional election held seven years later that CiU, under Artur Mas's leadership, was returned to government.
Beyond its dominance of Catalan politics, CDC sought to have influence in the Spanish parliament, collaborated with governments both under the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) (and more critically, in the 1993–1996 period when the PSOE was forced into a minority government) as well as under the People's Party (PP) (1996–2004), giving their support to both parties's attempts to form government, then maintaining confidence and supply agreements with them. CiU's support to Felipe González's government provided for the development of the "state of autonomies" the foundations for the financing of the autonomous communities. Under the PP governments of José María Aznar, CDC supported the liberalizing and budgetary control measures that allowed Spain to eventually adopt the euro as the country's currency. In the so-called "Majestic Pacts" signed between CiU and the PP after the latter's victory in the 1996 Spanish general election, both parties had also agreed to further expand on the development of regional financing started during González's tenure, the abolition of compulsory military service and the devolution of powers to the autonomous communities.
Pujol's retirement ahead of the 2003 Catalan regional election prompted Artur Mas—who served as chief minister (Catalan: Conseller en cap) and Pujol's protégée during the late stages of his government—as his successor as CDC leader and CiU leading candidate. After CiU's victory in the 2010 regional election, Mas would become the new president of the Government of Catalonia, introducing previously unseen variable geometry in the region's politics: first by partnering with the opposition's main party the PSC, then seeking collaboration with the local PP branch for approving the regional budget. As a result of the 11 September 2012 demonstration, Mas sought to capitalize on the social momentum of independence by triggering a snap election for 25 November, hoping to expand his parliamentary majority and attain an absolute majority; instead, his party suffered a severe setback by falling from 62 to 50 seats, having to rely on the support of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) to keep himself in power. Frictions with CDC's alliance partner UDC over the issue of independence ended up in the termination of CiU as a political project in June 2015.
Concurrently, the party had been shaken by CDC founder Jordi Pujol's confession on 25 July 2014 that he had hidden "money located abroad" from the Public Treasury for 34 years, allegedly attributed to his father's, Florenci Pujol, heritage. In his statement, Pujol regretted never having found the "right time" for the regularization of these amounts of money and asked the public for forgiveness. Various media outlets pointed out that this money was located in secret bank accounts abroad and could have benefitted from the fiscal amnesty promoted by the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy in 2012. Coupled with the ongoing judicial investigations on an alleged CDC corruption scandal involving the payment of illegal commissions in exchange for the award of public works—in what would be known as the "3% case" because of that amount being the percentage of the public works' budgets that was to be illegally paid—Pujol's confession caused a profound commotion in Catalan society, which had the former president as a revered public figure with a large amount of influence.
Following CiU's breakup, CDC contested the 2015 Catalan regional election within the Junts pel Sí coalition, and the 2015 Spanish general election within the Democracy and Freedom alliance. The 2016 Spanish general election would be the only one in CDC's long electoral history which the party would contest entirely on its own.
