[36] It also wanted to replace the State of Autonomies with a much more centralist, albeit still politically decentralized, unitary system as well as substituting a more proportional election law for the current one.

In the general elections held on 20 November 2011, the party won 1,143,225 votes (4.70 percent), five seats which it was able to form a parliamentary group with in the Congress of Deputies[41] (four in Madrid and one in Valencia) and became the fourth-largest political force in the country.

Its platform was mainly centered around the fight against ETA and politically motivated violence, the regeneration of Spanish democracy and reforming the Constitution of 1978 to reinforce civil liberties and equality, independent of regional origin.

Groups supporting Plataforma Pro included Citizens of Catalonia (notably Albert Boadella, Arcadi Espada and Xavier Pericay) and ¡Basta Ya!, a major influence on the new movement.

In September 2007, Forum Ermua president Mikel Buesa announced their intention to participate in the political party arising from Plataforma Pro; he resigned in 2009 due to disagreements with Rosa Díez.

Participants in its formation included Catalan dramatist Albert Boadella, Basque philosopher Fernando Savater, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and Rosa Díez.

Also present were journalist Arcadi Espada, anthropologists Teresa Giménez Barbat and Felix Perez Romera (three prominent Citizens of Catalonia members), historian Antonio Elorza, painter Agustín Ibarrola, former Forum Ermua leader Mikel Buesa, philosopher Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, Citizens deputies Albert Rivera and Antonio Robles Almeida, Peruvian writer Fernando Iwasaki, former UGT secretary general Nicolas Redondo and People's Party Basque MP Fernando Maura.

Of the five seats won, four (held by Rosa Díez, Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, Álvaro Anchuelo and Irene Lozano) were in Madrid; actor Toni Cantó was elected in Valencia Province.

In the 2014 European Parliament Elections, Francisco Sosa Wagner was re-elected, and UPyD won three extra seats (for Maite Pagazaurtundúa, Fernando Maura and Beatriz Becerra), consolidating their support nationwide.

It's worth stressing that the centralist UPyD was the only statewide party that, until the appearance of Vox, actively defended the abolition of chartered regimes in all Spain, even in those regions which have them: Navarre and the Basque Country.

The magenta party advocated for the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation so unconditionally that it supported the application of Article 155 of Spain's Constitution so as to suspend Catalonia's home rule,[77] and the prosecution of Catalan separatist leaders for rebellion and sedition.

He criticized its commitment to an electoral law that "prevents peripheral nationalist parties from having a significant presence in the Spanish Parliament" because, in his mind, fighting against nationalism with institutional reforms would mean "sacrificing the most essential elements of our democracy".

[81] Although UPyD claims to be a social liberal party that rejects any form of nationalism, the party has been branded as a Spanish nationalist one, as well as by Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, by the journalist Javier Ortiz,[82] by some writers such as Mónica Dorange,[21] José Ramón Montero and Ignacio Lago[83] and Jean-Pierre Cabestan and Aleksandar Pavković[84] and by the scholarly association European Consortium for Political Research.

[89] Former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero criticized UPyD because, in his opinion, centralism has caused even more inequality than the current autonomic state and he pointed out that equality shouldn't be confused with uniformity.

[90] The PP's member Ignacio González, despite admitting his agreement on issues such as the anti-terrorist policy and territorial integrity, has placed UPyD on the far-left of the political spectrum.

The party advocated the improvement and reinforcement of individual rights and obligations, which were to be strictly defined for all Spaniards without territorial, linguistic, ideological, or religious inequalities.

[104] Arguing that the autonomous state not only created inequalities across the country but was also "elephantine, politically unviable and economically unsustainable",[105][106] the party advocated centralising powers that affected citizens' fundamental rights such as education, health, justice, and taxation.

[117] The party also advocated the unconditional approval of specific budgetary allocations to strengthen the human and material resources of the Spanish security forces and intelligence services so that they could fight against Islamic terrorism under optimal conditions.

[118] Moreover, UPyD supported Spain's military deployment in Syria to destroy the Islamic State as part of a European resolution under the United Nations' protection.

[119] UPyD supported reforming the Spanish Penal Code to impose an indefinite imprisonment sentence for crimes of the utmost gravity, having previously submitted this issue to a consultative referendum.

[120] The criminals condemned would have had the possibility of parole or pardon after spending a minimum of 35 years in prison if they had received a favourable, individualised prognosis for social reintegration in a sentence review process.

[122] The magenta party favoured the regularisation of surrogacy[123] and voluntary prostitution,[124] and the legalization of euthanasia coupled with assisted suicide as a way of offering terminally ill people the option of dying without prolonged suffering.

[134] Secularism for UPyD consisted of "fair treatment of all legitimate religious beliefs, i.e., those compatible with human rights, the rule of law, and democracy".

[144] Therefore, the magenta party supported early sex education, which would have informed high school students about all available contraceptive methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies while encouraging them to steer clear of abortion as much as possible.

[146] As a social liberal party,[23][147] UPyD advocated a free-market economy subject to necessary state interventions to eliminate tax evasion, provide quality public goods or services and increase equity in income distribution.

Some of UPyD's measures were the following: the use of nuclear power as an essential part of Spain's energy mix, which would have also included renewable energy and hydraulic fracturing;[153][154] the cessation of subsidies for coal mining and the closure of cost-inefficient mines;[155] scientific research into climate change and its possible corrective measures; and the strengthening of legislation protecting natural areas to halt the loss of the coastline and sensitive natural areas due to urbanisation and other misuses.

[164] UPyD thought that the Civil Guard should have stopped illegal immigrants and either repatriated them legally or returned them to the country from which they'd entered, without violating their human rights.

[166][167] On the other hand, the party stood up for giving asylum and humanitarian protection to people who fled from their nations because of armed conflicts, thereby implementing dissuasive sanctions on EU member states that refused to host refugees.

They opted for Union, Progress and Democracy because, as Rosa Díez explained, "there wasn't a party in Spain that had the necessary democratic pedagogy to defend these three concepts unashamedly.

[176] In 2009, the party founded the think tank Fundación Progreso y Democracia (FPyD: Progress and Democracy Foundation), which has been presided over by UPyD spokesperson Rosa Díez.