CDS - Partido Popular

History

Foundation

The CDS, Democratic Social Centre, was founded on 19 July 1974 by Diogo Freitas do Amaral, Paulo Lowndes Marques, Adelino Amaro da Costa, Basílio Horta, Vítor Sá Machado, Valentim Xavier Pintado, João Morais Leitão and João Porto. By that time, Portugal was living an unstable political moment: instability, violence and great social tensions were evident after the Carnation Revolution held on 25 April of the same year. The then CDS declared itself as a party rigorously at the centre of the political spectrum, but by then it already counted with a major slice of Portuguese right-winger in its affiliations. On 13 January 1975, the leaders of CDS delivered at the Supreme Court of Justice the necessary documentation to legalise the party. The first congress was held on 25 January 1975, at the Rosa Mota Pavilion, Porto city, which was interrupted by a siege from far-left protesters.

First years of opposition

After 25 March 1975, a regime centred in social matters, state control of the economy and military leadership began its efforts to dominate the nation, which summed up with the COPCON (a post-revolutionary military organisation founded in 1974) and the constant attacks perpetrated on the western social democrat model, led the CDS to declare itself officially as an opposition party. Its 16 deputies cast the only votes against the Socialist-influenced Constitution of 1976, on 2 April. In the legislative election of 1976, the CDS achieved its objectives by having 42 deputies elected and so surpassing the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP).

The Democratic Alliance

In 1979, the CDS proposed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM). The proposal brought about the creation of the Democratic Alliance (AD), headed by Francisco Sá Carneiro, which won the general elections of 1979 and 1980.

In the AD governments, the CDS was represented by five ministers and ten state secretaries, with the president of the party, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, being nominated to the offices of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (later nominated Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister).

On the night of 4 December 1980, Sá Carneiro and his Minister of National Defence, Adelino Amaro da Costa, were among those who died in a plane crash. Diogo Freitas do Amaral became caretaker prime minister until the formation of a new government, which Francisco Pinto Balsemão headed. This latter administration collapsed on 4 September 1981, after the resignation of Freitas do Amaral (both from the cabinet and from the party presidency). As a result, the Democratic Alliance ended.

An opposition of 20 years

After the collapse of the AD, the party looked for a new leader and new direction. Freitas do Amaral's successors were Francisco Lucas Pires (1983–1986) and Adriano Moreira (1986–1988), who, having been unable to stop the party's negative performance, did not stand for re-election. Freitas do Amaral returned as party president, during a period characterised by the electoral success of the PSD, with the leadership of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, to lead a rump of four deputies (later five) in parliament.

In 1992, a new generation took over the party. At the party's 10th Congress in March of that year, the former president of the Centrist Youth (the then-youth organisation of the CDS), Manuel Monteiro, was elected to the presidency. A year later, at an extraordinary congress, the title People's Party ("Partido Popular") was added to the party's official name in an effort to emulate the Spanish party of the same name. Freitas do Amaral left the party in the same year.

In 1993, the CDS-PP was expelled from the European People's Party (EPP), both for rejecting the Maastricht Treaty and therefore being not pro-integrationist enough and for not paying due membership fees.

The CDS-PP underwent an electoral recovery in the general election of 1995, electing 15 deputies. However, following poor electoral results in local elections in 1997, Manuel Monteiro resigned and was replaced at the party's Braga congress by Paulo Portas who defeated Maria José Nogueira Pinto. Portas proposed a return to the party's Christian democratic roots and set himself the challenge of keeping all 15 seats in parliament in the general election of 1999. This was accomplished.

The "Democratic Coalition"

After a massive electoral defeat in the 2001 local elections, the Socialist Party (PS) Prime Minister António Guterres resigned with a general election being held in early 2002. The PSD won a plurality, forcing them to enter into a coalition, 20 years after their previous coalition government with the CDS-PP. The CDS-PP gained three ministries: Paulo Portas as Minister of National Defence, Bagão Félix as Minister of Social Security and Celeste Cardona as Minister of Justice.

The CDS-PP contested the 2004 European election in a joint electoral list with the PSD called Forward Portugal (FP), retaining its 2 MEPs.

In the summer of 2004, PSD Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso, resigned to become president of the European Commission and in order to avoid an early general election, President Jorge Sampaio invited Pedro Santana Lopes to form a new PSD/CDS-PP coalition government. Due to low popularity and what was seen as the inept handling of the country by the new prime minister, parliament was dissolved after just four months on 30 November 2004 and a new general election was scheduled for February 2005.

2005 general election

In the 2005 legislative election, the CDS-PP obtained 7.2% of the vote and returning 12 deputies, losing two of its 14 deputies. The CDS-PP returned to opposition, with its coalition partner the PSD losing to the centre-left PS, whose leader José Sócrates became prime minister. This electoral failure for the CDS-PP, along with the defeat of the PSD led to Paulo Portas's resignation as party leader and a congress to elect a new leader.

"Portugal 2009"

After the resignation of Paulo Portas, who had led the CDS-PP for seven years, two candidates then emerged: Telmo Correia and José Ribeiro e Castro, with the former being looked on as a favourite, following the line and style of Paulo Portas. However, José Ribeiro e Castro with his 'Portugal 2009' platform was elected president of the CDS-PP. In May 2007, however, Paulo Portas was again elected as the leader of the party, amidst controversy.

The CDS-PP contested the 2009 European election in a standalone list, retaining its two MEPs with 8.4% of the vote.

In the 2009 legislative election, the party increased their share of the votes to 10.4% and won 21 seats, while remaining in opposition to Prime Minister José Sócrates.

Return to government in 2011

In the 2011 legislative election, the CDS-PP increased its share of the vote yet again to 11.7%, returning 24 deputies. This, along with the victory of the PSD over the incumbent PS government, resulted in the CDS-PP joining a coalition government led by PSD leader and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, obtaining 5 ministries in the cabinet.

2014 European elections

The 2014 European election had the CDS-PP once again form a joint list with the PSD, this time called the Portugal Alliance. The list received 27.7% of the vote, second place behind the PS, and returned a single MEP for the CDS-PP.

2015 general election and Portugal à Frente

The CDS-PP formed an alliance with the PSD ahead of the 2015 legislative election, called Portugal Ahead (Portugal à Frente, PàF) with PSD leader and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho leading the coalition. The PàF coalition, however, lost 25 seats and the parliamentary majority, though they were still comfortably ahead of the Socialist Party by more than 20 seats. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva swore in Passos Coelho and his minority government, but ten days later the PàF government collapsed when the Communists, Greens and Left Bloc voted in favour of the Socialists' motion of no confidence. Socialist lead António Costa was sworn in as prime minister on 26 November in a minority government, thrusting PàF into opposition. Passos Coelho declared the end of the Portugal Ahead coalition 16 December.

2019 European elections

The 2019 European election had the CDS-PP return to an individual list, rather than allying with the PSD. The CDS-PP again returned just a single MEP on 6.2% of the vote.

2019 general election

Longtime leader Paulo Portas left the party's leadership after 20 years in December 2015. In March 2016, Assunção Cristas, Portas's chosen successor, was overwhelmingly elected leader of the party over Miguel Mattos Chaves. Cristas became the party's first female leader. However, the subsequent legislative elections were disastrous for the party. The CDS-PP lost 13 of their previous 18 seats, leaving them with only five, and took less than 5% of the vote as António Costa's Socialist government strengthened their position, but fell short of an absolute majority. Cristas resigned as CDS-PP as the election results became clear.

2022 general election

A snap election was called for January 2022 after Costa's budget was rejected when the Left Bloc and Communists joined the right-wing parties in voting against it. The party was led by Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, the leader of People's Youth, who narrowly won the 2020 leadership election. The election resulted in a surprise majority for Costa's Socialists after tightening polls, and the CDS-PP lost their five remaining seats on just 1.6% and for the first time since the restoration of democracy returned no members of the Assembly. The party received just 86,578 votes, less than half of their 2019 total. The CDS-PP's disastrous results were blamed partially on the rise of other right-wing parties, Liberal Initiative and Chega!, which both saw huge increases in support. Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, then the president of the party, resigned on the very same night.

In the following congress, he was replaced by CDS's single MEP, Nuno Melo.

2024 general election and the new Democratic Alliance

In November 2023, Prime Minister António Costa tendered his resignation after a series of police raids regarding an investigation around alleged corruption involving the award of contracts for lithium and hydrogen businesses, and, shortly after, a snap election was called for 10 March 2024. CDS–PP decided to contest the election in a joint alliance called Democratic Alliance (AD) alongside PSD and PPM. The AD coalition won by a slight margin over the Socialists, 29 to 28 percent, and formed a minority government. CDS–PP leader, Nuno Melo, became Defence minister. Three months later, in the 2024 European Parliament elections, the AD coalition was narrowly defeated by the Socialists, 31 to 32 percent. A new election was called for May 2025, after a vote of confidence in the AD minority government was rejected, following the revelations of the Spinumviva case. The AD coalition emerged victorious once again, winning a stronger mandate with nearly 32 percent of the votes and 91 seats.

2025 legislative election

In the 18 May 2025 legislative election, CDS-PP again ran in coalition with the Aliança Democrática group. The alliance garnered 1,971,558 votes, representing 31.21% of the voting electorate. The results netted 88 of 230 seats to the coalition, making it the most-voted group in the election.

Ideology

A large ideological overlap exists between the CDS-PP and the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The CDS-PP's original philosophy was based on Christian democracy, and it was originally positioned in the centre. A factional disagreement within the party between those that believed that the CDS-PP should be to the right of the PSD or in the political centre erupted. The party shifted in the early 1990s under the leadership of Manuel Monteiro. It still considers itself to be a centrist party. It has been also described as a national conservative party.

The party formerly had a pro-EU line, but switched under Monteiro, becoming mildly Eurosceptic, including opposing the Maastricht Treaty, with this change of policy credited for ending the party's decline. As a result of the change, the European People's Party (EPP) expelled the CDS-PP from the EPP Group in the European parliament, with the CDS-PP joining the Union for Europe (UfE) group instead. Monteiro's successor, Paulo Portas, continued the CDS-PP's Eurosceptic line, but rejoined the EPP.

The CDS-PP has always strongly opposed the legalisation of abortion in Portugal and is officially an anti-abortion party. It had campaigned vigorously against the legalisation of abortion up to ten weeks in the 1998 referendum on abortion and in the 2007 referendum, where under the current law abortions are allowed up to 12 weeks if the mother's life or mental or physical health is at risk, up to 16 weeks in cases of rape and up to 24 weeks if the child may be born with an incurable disease or deformity; whereas the new law proposal will allow abortions on request up to the tenth week. The CDS-PP has proposed what it considers to be responsible alternatives based on the "right to life" to solve the problem of illegal abortion and of abortion itself.

Political positions

Some of the party's proposals include:

Stronger immigration laws

Opposition to European federalism

Stronger relations with Brazil

Introducing a school voucher-based education system

A stronger stance on law and order issues

A substantial decrease in taxation

Opposition to the MPLA regime of Angola and support for UNITA and RENAMO

Opposition to hard sanctions on South Africa

Organisation

List of parliamentary leaders

Victor Sá Machado (1975–1976)

Adelino Amaro da Costa (1976–1978)

Narana Coissoró (1st time) (1978–1983)

José Luís Nogueira de Brito (1983–1985)

Narana Coissoró (2nd time) (1985–1991)

António Lobo Xavier (1991–1995)

Maria José Nogueira Pinto (1995–1996)

Jorge Ferreira (1996–1998)

Luís Queiró (1998–1999)

Paulo Portas (1999–2001)

Basílio Horta (2001–2002)

Telmo Correia (1st time) (2002–2004)

Nuno Melo (2004–2007)

Diogo Feio (2007–2009)

Pedro Mota Soares (2009–2011)

Nuno Magalhães (2011–2019)

Cecília Meireles (2019–2020)

Telmo Correia (2nd time) (2020–2022)

Vacant (2022–2024)

Paulo Núncio (2024–present)

Political support

In line with the two largest parties in Portuguese politics, but unlike the two far-left parties, the CDS-PP is a big tent party, with appeal across social and ideological groups. The party's voters have a similar profile to the PSD. It has low voter loyalty, with voter retention historically being half the level of the three other largest parties.

The major issue on which the voter profile differs most significantly from the other parties is abortion, where those that identify as anti-abortion are significantly more likely to vote for the CDS-PP.

The CDS-PP receives a considerable amount of support amongst farmers in the north, as well as among entrepreneurs and managers.

International affiliations

The CDS-PP is a member party of the International Democracy Union (IDU) and European People's Party (EPP). One MEP currently sits in the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

It was formerly a member of the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD), as well as the EUCD-affiliated EPP's political group in the European Parliament, from 1986 to 1995. In 1995, the party –under the more Eurosceptic leadership of Manuel Monteiro– was kicked out of the EPP; it left the EUCD and joined the Union for Europe group in the European Parliament. In 2003, the party joined the European Democrats component of the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP–ED) group. In 2006, it left the European Democrats –now collapsing due to the formation of the Movement for European Reform– to join the EPP group proper.

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

Seat share in the Portuguese legislative elections

Local

Results of CDS and CDS-led coalitions. Elected officials from the 1979 and 1982 elections only from CDS sole lists.