Editing Plaid Cymru (section)

===1990s===
In the [[1992 United Kingdom general election|1992 general election]], the party added a fourth MP, [[Cynog Dafis]], when he gained [[Ceredigion and Pembroke North]] from the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]. Dafis was endorsed by the local branch of the [[Wales Green Party|Green Party]]. The party's vote share recovered to 9.9% at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

In 1997, following the election of a Labour government committed to devolution for Wales, a [[1997 Welsh devolution referendum|further referendum]] was narrowly won, establishing the [[National Assembly for Wales]]. Plaid Cymru became the main opposition to the ruling Labour Party, with 17 seats to Labour's 28. In doing so, it appeared to have broken out of its rural Welsh-speaking heartland, and gained seats in traditionally strong Labour areas in industrial [[South Wales]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=R. W. |date=2006-01-01 |title=Devolution and Electoral Politics in Scotland and Wales |url=https://academic.oup.com/publius/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/publius/pji034 |journal=Publius: The Journal of Federalism |language=en |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=115–134 |doi=10.1093/publius/pji034 |issn=0048-5950}}</ref>

Ahead of the [[1999 National Assembly for Wales election]], Plaid Cymru dropped its policy of Welsh independence in favour of continued membership in the European Union. These changes in policy were made as it was believed that the electorate in Wales did not view independence as an important issue. It also adopted [[social democracy]] for its economic policy in an attempt to weaken Labour. These changes in policy have been used to explain the party's subsequent electoral success in Labour's traditional [[South East Wales]] heartlands.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |year=2018 |title=Welsh Nationalism: An Approach |url=https://addi.ehu.es/bitstream/handle/10810/30202/TFG_Cillero.pdf |access-date=28 December 2023 |website=Universidad del Pais Vasco |page=14}}</ref>