CDS – People's Party
The CDS – People's Party is a conservative and Christian democratic political party in Portugal. It is characterized as being between the centre-right and right-wing of the political spectrum. In voting ballots, the party's name appears only as the People's Party, with the abbreviation CDS–PP unchanged.
The party was founded on 19 July 1974 during the Carnation Revolution. In its first democratic elections in 1975, the CDS-PP won 16 seats out of 230 – increasing to 42 in the 1976 legislative election. The party entered a short-lived coalition with the Socialist Party before joining the Democratic Alliance. The party has been involved in centre-right coalitions with the Social Democratic Party from 1980 to 1983 and again from 2002 to 2005. In the 2009 legislative election, the party won 21 seats, its most since the 1985 election, and increased it to 24 in 2011, leading to it forming a coalition government with the PSD.
The party is a member of the European People's Party and the International Democracy Union. The party also has autonomous organisations which share its political beliefs, the People's Youth and the Federation of Christian Democratic Workers.
After a disastrous result in the 2022 general elections, which left the party with no seats in the Assembly of the Republic for the first time ever since its founding, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos resigned as president; he was replaced by MEP Nuno Melo in the 29th National Congress of the Party.
History
Foundation
The CDS, Democratic Social Center, 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 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.The Democratic Alliance
In 1979, the CDS proposed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party and the People's Monarchist Party. The proposal brought about the creation of the Democratic Alliance, 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.
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. 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 and Adriano Moreira, who, when 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 in parliament.In 1992, a new generation took over the party and in March of that year. At the party's 10th Congress, the former president of the Centrist Youth, Manuel Monteiro, was elected to the presidency. A year later, at an extraordinary congress, the title People's Party 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, 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 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, 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.