Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party is a liberal-conservative political party in Portugal. Commonly known by its colloquial initials PSD, on ballot papers its initials appear as its official form PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, the Democratic Peoples' Party. Alongside the Socialist Party, the PSD is one of the two major parties in Portuguese politics.
The party was founded in 1974, two weeks after the Carnation Revolution and in 1976 changed to its current name. In 1979, it allied with centre-right parties to form the Democratic Alliance and won that year's election. After the 1983 general election, the party formed a grand coalition with the Socialist Party, known as the Central Bloc, before winning the election under new leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva in 1985 and shift the party to the right. Cavaco Silva served as Prime Minister for ten years, instituting major economic liberalisation and winning two landslide victories. After he stepped down, the PSD lost the 1995 election. The party was returned to power under José Manuel Durão Barroso in 2002, but was defeated in the 2005 election. The party was able to return to power after the 2011 elections and four years later was able to win a plurality in the 2015 legislative election, winning 107 seats in the Assembly of the Republic in alliance with the People's Party, but being unable to form a minority government. The current leader, Rui Rio, a centrist, was elected on 13 January 2018.
Originally a social-democratic party, the PSD became the main centre-right, conservative party in Portugal. The PSD is a member of the European People's Party and the Centrist Democrat International. Until 1996, the PSD belonged to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and Liberal International. The party publishes the weekly Povo Livre newspaper.
History
Foundation
The Social Democratic Party was born on 6 May 1974, when Francisco Sá Carneiro, Francisco Pinto Balsemão and Joaquim Magalhães Mota publicly announced the formation of what was then called the PPD, the Democratic People's Party. On 15 May, the party's first headquarters were inaugurated in Largo do Rato, Lisbon. This was followed, on 24 June, by the formation of the first Political Committee, consisting of Francisco Sá Carneiro, Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, Barbosa de Melo, Mota Pinto, Montalvão Machado, Miguel Veiga, Ferreira Júnior, António Carlos Lima, António Salazar Silva, Jorge Correia da Cunha, Jorge Figueiredo Dias and Jorge Sá Borges.The Povo Livre publication was founded, its first issue being published on 13 July 1974, led by its first two directors, Manuel Alegria and Rui Machete. The PPD's first major meeting was held in the "Pavilhão dos Desportos", Lisbon, on 25 October, and a month later the party's first official congress took place.
On 17 January 1975, 6300 signatures were sent to the Supreme Court so that the party could be approved as a legitimate political entity, which happened a mere eight days later.
In 1975, the PPD applied unsuccessfully to join the Socialist International, with its membership attempt vetoed by the Socialist Party.
Alberto João Jardim was the co-founder of the Madeiran branch of the PSD, and governed the autonomous archipelago for decades, running as a member of the party.
Democratic Alliance governments
The Social Democratic Party participated in a number of coalition governments in Portugal between 1974 and 1976, following the Carnation Revolution. This is seen as a transitional period in Portuguese politics, in which political institutions were built and took time to stabilize. In 1979, the PSD formed an electoral alliance, known as the Democratic Alliance, with the Democratic and Social Centre and a couple of smaller right-wing parties. The AD won the parliamentary elections towards the end of 1979, and the PSD leader, Francisco Sá Carneiro, became Prime Minister. The PSD would be part of all governments until 1995. The AD increased its parliamentary majority in new elections called for 1980, but was devastated by the death of Sá Caneiro in an air crash on 4 December 1980. Francisco Pinto Balsemão took over the leadership of both the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, as well as the Prime Ministership, but lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma, he was unable to rally popular support.The Democratic Alliance was dissolved in 1983, and in parliamentary elections that year, the PSD lost to the Socialist Party. Falling short of a majority, however, the Socialists formed a grand coalition, known as the Central Bloc, with the PSD. Many right-wingers in the PSD, including Aníbal Cavaco Silva, opposed participation in the PS-led government, and so, when Cavaco Silva was elected leader of the party on 2 June 1985, the coalition was doomed.
Cavaco Silva governments (1985–1995)
The PSD won a plurality in the general election of 1985, and Cavaco Silva became Prime Minister. Economic liberalization and tax cuts ushered in several years of economic growth. After a motion of no confidence was approved, early elections were called for July 1987 which resulted in a landslide victory for the PSD, who captured 50.2% percent of the popular vote and 148 of the 250 parliamentary seats – the first time that any political party in Portugal had mustered an absolute majority in a free election. A strong economy, growing above 7% in 1988, ushered a big convergence between Portugal and other EU countries. The PSD won a historic 3rd term in the 1991 election, almost as easily as in 1987, but continuing high levels of unemployment and a lower economy, after 1993, eroded the popularity of the Cavaco Silva government.Post-Cavaco Silva
Cavaco Silva stepped down as leader in January 1995. In the following month, in the PSD congress, the party elected Fernando Nogueira as leader. The PSD lost the 1995 election to the PS. In 1996, Cavaco Silva ran for the presidency of the republic, but he failed to defeat former Lisbon Mayor Jorge Sampaio. Sampaio won 53.9% to Cavaco's 46.1%. The party, for the first time in 16 years, was out of government. The party was again defeated in the 1999 elections.First PSD/CDS coalition government
The PSD made a comeback in 2002, however: despite falling short of a majority, the PSD won enough seats to form a coalition with the CDS-PP, and the PSD leader, José Manuel Durão Barroso, became Prime Minister. Durão Barroso later resigned his post to become President of the European Commission, leaving the way for Pedro Santana Lopes, a man with whom he was frequently at odds, to become leader of the party and Prime Minister.Back in opposition (2005–2011)
In the parliamentary election held on 20 February 2005, Santana Lopes led the PSD to its worst defeat since 1983. With a negative swing of more than 12% percent, the party won only 75 seats, a loss of 30. The rival Socialist Party had won an absolute majority, and remained in government after the 2009 parliamentary election, albeit without an absolute majority, leaving the PSD in opposition.The PSD-supported candidate Aníbal Cavaco Silva won the Portuguese presidential elections in 2006 and again in 2011. After the 2005 elections, Luís Marques Mendes was elected leader of the party. Internal infighting weakened Marques Mendes and, in September 2007, Marques Mendes was defeated by Luís Filipe Menezes by a 54% to 42% margin. Menezes was also incapable with dealing with his internal opposition and, after just six months in the job, Menezes resigned. On 31 May 2008, Manuela Ferreira Leite became the first female leader of a Portuguese major party. She won 38% of the votes, against the 31% of Pedro Passos Coelho and the 30% of Pedro Santana Lopes.
In the European Parliament election held on 7 June 2009, the PSD defeated the governing socialists, capturing 31.7% of the popular vote and electing eight MEPs, while the Socialist Party only won 26.5% of the popular vote and elected seven MEPs.
Although this was expected to be a "redrawing of the electoral map", the PSD was still defeated later that year, though the PS lost its majority. Pedro Passos Coelho was elected leader in March 2010, with 61% of the votes.
Second PSD/CDS coalition government
Growing popular disenchantment with the government's handling of the economic crisis coupled with the government's inability to secure the support of other parties to implement the necessary reforms to address the crisis, forced the Socialist Party Prime Minister José Sócrates to resign, leading to a fresh election on 5 June 2011. This resulted in a non-absolute majority for the PSD, leading to a coalition government with the CDS-PP, which served a full term until the 2015 general election. During this term, many austerity policies were put into practice to reduce the budget deficit but, ultimately, created unemployment and a recession that lasted until mid 2013. Since that date, the economy recovered starting to grow between 1 and 2% per trimester.In the 2015 general election, the PSD and CDS-PP ran in a joint coalition, called Portugal Ahead, led by Pedro Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas. The coalition won the elections by a wide margin over the Socialists, capturing 38.6% of the votes while the Socialists captured only 32%, although the coalition lost 25 MPs and a more than 11% of the votes, thus falling well short of an absolute majority. The PSD/CDS-PP coalition was asked by the then President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, to form a government with Passos Coelho as Prime Minister.
Back in opposition (2015–present)
The 2nd PSD/CDS government was duly formed and took the oath of office on 30 October 2015, but fell after a no-confidence motion was approved two weeks later. Its 11 days of rule make it the shortest-lived government since Portugal has been a democracy holding free elections. After that, the PSD returned to the opposition benches, and the Socialist Party was able to form an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government led by António Costa. Pedro Passos Coelho continued as party leader, but a weak opposition strategy led to bad polling numbers for the PSD. All of this culminated with the results of the 2017 local elections. In these elections, the PSD achieved their worst results ever, winning just 98 mayors and 30% of the votes. Passos Coelho announced he would not run for another term as PSD leader. On 13 January 2018, Rui Rio defeated Pedro Santana Lopes by a 54% to 46% margin and became the new party leader.During his first year in the leadership, Rio faced big internal opposition and, in January 2019, Rio won a motion of confidence presented by Luís Montenegro. In the EP 2019 elections, the PSD achieved their worst result ever in a national election, winning just 22% of the votes. However, the party recovered a lot of ground in the October 2019 general elections, achieving 28% of the votes, against the 36% of the PS. Nonetheless, Rio's leadership was, once again, challenged and he faced, in a two round leadership contest in January 2020, Luís Montenegro and Miguel Pinto Luz. Rio won the 1st round with 49% of the votes and defeated Luís Montenegro in the 2nd round by 53% to 47% margin, thus being re-elected as party leader.
Ideology
Historical evolution
The party was founded based on classical social democracy and was a centre to centre-left party, but later it evolved into catch-all centre-right party. The party has been described as liberal-conservative or conservative-liberal with Christian democratic and liberal elements.Factions
The PSD is frequently referred to as a party that is not ideology-based, but rather a power party. It frequently adopts a functional big tent party strategy to win elections. Due to this strategy, which most trace to Cavaco Silva's leadership, the party is made up of many factions, mostly centre-right as well as quasi-social-democrats and former communists:- Portuguese social democrats: the main faction when the party was created, throughout the party's history rightist politicians joined them to have a greater chance of gaining power and influencing the country's politics. They do not follow traditional social democracy, but Portuguese social democracy as defined by Sá Carneiro's actions and writings, which includes a degree of centrist and leftist populism. They followed a kind of anti-class struggle party/cross-class party strategy. All the other members of the party claim to follow this line. Among its representatives were most of the leaders between Francisco Sá Carneiro and Cavaco Silva, Alberto João Jardim and to an extent Luís Filipe Menezes identified himself with a centre-left matrix and a united left strategy and defended a more open party on issues like abortion. José Mendes Bota is another left-wing populist. The Portuguese social-democrats are centered around the Grupo da Boavista.
- European-style social-democrats: follow traditional social democracy. They share with the Portuguese social democrats their presence at the creation of the party and "a non-Marxist progressivist line". Many of them supported the Opções Inadiáveis manifesto, and then left to create the Independent Social Democrat Association and the Social Democrat Movement, forming electoral coalitions the Socialist Party during the 1970s–1980s. Some took part in the Democratic Renovator Party. A later example of a European-style Social democrat leaving the party for the Socialists is activist and politician Helena Roseta. The ones still in the party adapted to its current right-wing outlook or Portuguese social democracy. They today include former communists-turned centre-leftists, like Zita Seabra. Durão Barroso might have moved from Thatcherism to social democracy. Ironically, both Social Democrat factions were represented in the 2008 party elections by Manuela Ferreira Leite, economically neoliberal and socially conservative.
- Agrarianism: the other main faction at creation. The PSD was always more successful in the Northern and rural areas of the country. When Sousa Franco and his SPD-inspired social democrats started their break with the rest of the party he referred to a division between "a rural wing, led by Sá Carneiro, and an urban wing, more moderate and truly social democratic, close to the positions of Helmut Schmidt" Due to the electoral influence of ruralism on the PSD's politics they may be seen inside of or influencing most factions.
, Prime Minister 2004–2005
, Prime Minister 2011–2015
- Liberals : due to the Salazarist connotation of the term right-wing and all terms connected after the Carnation Revolution, the little atractiveness of economic liberalism in European politics, no specific liberal or conservative party was formed in post-1974 Portugal, except the experiences of the Catholic Action-monarchist Liberal Party in 1974 and the centrist liberal Democratic Renovator Party, so they started working inside the PSD. This strategy of joining "socialism and liberalism under the same hat" was especially successful during Cavaco Silva's leadership, when the party gave up its candidacy to the Socialist International and became member of the Liberal International and European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group, leaving the international and the European party and group in 1996 to join the Christian Democrat International, the European People's Party and the European People's Party-European Democrats. Since then, the liberal-social democrat rift has plagued the party's cohesion and actions. Durão Barroso is sometimes referred to as the most pure liberal of the party. In terms of social liberals, some try to link both social democracy and social liberalism to the PSD, to refer to the early PSD as liberal or partly social liberal party and social liberalism is sometimes identified with the social market economy tradition the party traditionally supported. Even members of the Portuguese Social Liberal Movement admit the traditional and current presence of social liberals on the PSD.
- Christian democrats and social Christians: some claim the PSD as the party from Christian democracy and social Christianity from the beginning, or having these currents as part of its legacy. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is one of the main preachers of Social Christianity inside the PSD. As is Paulo Rangel.
- Right-wing populists: distinct from radical right-wing populists, the populist centre and centre-left social democrats, the populist overlapers, and the Eurosceptic populists of the Democratic and Social Centre–People's Party. They are social-economic liberal conservative/conservative liberal and moderate culturally religious conservatives and internationalist national conservatives. Their main representative is Pedro Santana Lopes. Though the main right-wing populists were present at the founding of the party, they were clearly right-wing, recruited when their abilities were noticed in educated circles and universities, with minor agreements with Sá Carneiro's philosophy. Frequently as the PSD is a bipartisanship party, right-wing populists from the CDS-PP join the party. Luís Filipe Meneses is frequently described as a populist but he tried to lead the party back to a left line, and does not identify or act like the liberal conservative/conservative liberal populists.
- Conservatives: with the post-revolutionary opposition to the right no specific conservative party was founded in Portugal; conservatives acted inside the CDS-PP and the PSD. Frequently linked with the neoliberals, pure conservatives are rare in the party as the usual partisan or politician of the party is economically moderate, but socially conservative. One of the rare exceptions of a pure conservative in this party was former party member and MP Vasco Pulido Valente, who is highly elitist and a cultural , highly conservative and traditionalist.
- Neoconservatives: mostly former communists and leftists who supported the policies of the Bush Administration and defend similar views in Portuguese politics. The main example is José Pacheco Pereira.
- Neoliberals: neoliberal tendencies were introduced in Portuguese economy by Cavaco Silva, removing socialism from the constitution and finishing the de-collectivization of the economy started with Sá Carneiro. Cavaco never employed a totally Reaganite or Thatcherite strategy, maintaining a social democrat matrix and many populist and neo-Keynesian policies. Alberto João Jardim described the inconsistent neoliberalism of the PSD as "those Chicago Boys have some funny ideas, but when election time arrives the old Keynesianism is still what counts". Cavaco Silva and Durão Barroso are both sometimes referred to as the closest to neo-liberal leaders of the party. The main pure representative of the streak is Manuela Ferreira Leite, but even she called herself a social democrat and explained "I'm not certainly liberal, I'm also not populist" and lead the social democratic factions during internal party rifts, though she accepts the nickname "Portuguese iron lady" and comparisons to Thatcher if " means an enormous intransigence on values and in principles, of not abdicating from these values and from these principles and of continuing my way independently of the popularity of my actions and the effects on my image". The main group associated with the neoliberal faction of the PSD is the Projecto Farol.
- Overlappers: the average PSD voter and partisan since Cavaco Silva's leadership. Cavaco himself, though a self-described Neo-Keynesian, an early member of the party since its centre-left days and a man with social-liberal and centrist populist economic policy tendencies, he is personally a social conservative and a practicing Catholic. As such, Cavacoism should be considered a "hybrid" or a political syncretism. A similar case is Vasco Graça Moura, who claims to be an economic social democrat but opposes gay people serving in the military and is a self-described "centre-left reactionary". The overlappers are mainly represented in the forums gathered by the District of Oporto section of the party, which during the 2009 European elections tried to gather the ideas of all factions.
- Centrists: not to be confused with overlappers. Still indecisive between social democracy, social liberalism or any other kind of centrism.
- Transversalists: are pragmatic and not strict on ideological issues. Although open to privatization and civil society alternatives to the social state, in speech they move closer to the centre-left origins of the party and are generally proud of them. The main representative of this faction is Pedro Passos Coelho, who claims to be neither left nor right, but that "the real issues are between old and new", though his opponents identified him as a liberal since the 2008 party election, though he recalled the many meanings of liberal and recalled the left liberalism of the United States Democratic Party, being even called "PSD's Obama" by supporters. Centrists and transversalists inside the party share the think tank Construir Ideias, which Passos Coelho founded and leads. They mix calls to privatization with others to more social justice, government regulation and arbitration and strategic governmental involvement in the economy. This faction is in constant rift with the more socially right-wing ones and also with the overlappers whose hybrid approach they refuse, over the future of the party and its future ideological and philosophical alignments.
Election results
Assembly of the Republic
European Parliament
Regional Assemblies
List of leaders
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from:1975 till:1978 shift: color:PSD text:Francisco Sá Carneiro
from:1978 till:1978 shift: color:PSD text:António de Sousa Franco
from:1978 till:1980 shift: color:PSD text:Francisco Sá Carneiro
from:1980 till:1983 shift: color:PSD text:Francisco Pinto Balsemão
from:1983 till:1984 shift: color:PSD text:Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos
from:1984 till:1985 shift: color:PSD text:Carlos Mota Pinto
from:1985 till:1995 shift: color:PSD text:Aníbal Cavaco Silva
from:1995 till:1996 shift: color:PSD text:Fernando Nogueira
from:1996 till:1999 shift: color:PSD text:Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
from:1999 till:2004 shift: color:PSD text:Durão Barroso
from:2004 till:2005 shift: color:PSD text:Santana Lopes
from:2005 till:2007 shift: color:PSD text:Marques Mendes
from:2007 till:2008 shift: color:PSD text:Luis Filipe Menezes
from:2008 till:2010 shift: color:PSD text:Manuela Ferreira Leite
from:2010 till:2018 shift: color:PSD text:Pedro Passos Coelho
from:2018 till:end shift: color:PSD text:Rui Rio
bar:Govern. color:red width:30 mark: align:left fontsize:7
from:1976 till:1978 shift: color:PS text:Soares I
from:1978 till:1979 shift: color:PS text:Soares II
from:1979 till:1980 shift: color:PSD text:Sá Carneiro
from:1980 till:1983 shift: color:PSD text:Balsemão
from:1983 till:1985 shift: color:PS text:Soares III
from:1985 till:1987 shift: color:PSD text:Cavaco Silva I
from:1987 till:1991 shift: color:PSD text:Cavaco Silva II
from:1991 till:1995 shift: color:PSD text:Cavaco Silva III
from:1995 till:1999 shift: color:PS text:Guterres I
from:1999 till:2002 shift: color:PS text:Guterres II
from:2002 till:2004 shift: color:PSD text:Durão Barroso
from:2004 till:2005 shift: color:PSD text:Santana Lopes
from:2005 till:2009 shift: color:PS text:Sócrates I
from:2009 till:2011 shift: color:PS text:Sócrates II
from:2011 till:2015 shift: color:PSD text:Passos Coelho
from:2015 till:2019 shift: color:PS text:Costa I
from:2019 till:end shift: color:PS text:Costa II
List of Secretaries-General (second-in-command)
- Joaquim Magalhães Mota
- Sérvulo Correia
- Amândio de Azevedo
- António Capucho
- Antunes da Silva
- Dias Loureiro
- Falcão e Cunha
- Nunes Liberato
- Azevedo Soares
- Rui Rio
- Horta e Costa
- António Capucho
- Torres Pereira
- José Luís Arnaut
- Miguel Relvas
- Miguel Macedo
- Ribau Esteves
- Luís Marques Guedes
- Miguel Relvas
- José Matos Rosa
- Feliciano Barreiras Duarte
- José Silvano
Prime Ministers
- Francisco Sá Carneiro: 1979–1980
- Francisco Pinto Balsemão: 1981–1983
- Aníbal Cavaco Silva: 1985–1995
- José Manuel Durão Barroso: 2002–2004
- Pedro Santana Lopes: 2004–2005
- Pedro Passos Coelho: 2011–2015
Presidents of the Republic
- Aníbal Cavaco Silva: 2006–2016
- Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa: 2016–present