The party was founded in 1970, although it remained illegal until 1977 following the death of the caudillo Francisco Franco and the democratisation of Spain.

The current organisation of the Carlist Party originates from the renovation of the ideology of the illegal Traditionalist Communion, which it was conceived during the 1950s and 1960s in a situation of illegality and prohibition imposed in Francoist Spain to university and workers organisations of non-integrated Carlism (Group of Traditionalist Students, AET, the university; Traditionalist Worker's Movement, MOT, the workers) into the Francoist only official party, with the support of prince Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, even though the name of the Carlist Party did not materialize until the end of the 1960s.

The leader Francesc Xavier after suffering a serious automobile accident conceded full powers to his son Carlos Hugo, represented in Spain for José María de Zavala, to run the party and resigned on 20 April 1975.

Because of the electoral infighting, its general secretary Zavala resigned following the rest of the directors between Carlos Carnicero and Josep Carles Clemente.

The Carlist Party missed attending the majority of later electoral processes due to funds and militancy failures.

It defines itself as part of the "New Left" that rejects the Soviet state-managed economy in favor of a democratization of the market through cooperatives and trade unions.

[3] It supports a number of social justice causes, such as the legalization of homosexuality[4] and ethnic minority rights,[5] but justifying these things from a Catholic, rather than secular liberal, perspective.