Social Democratic Party (Portugal)


The Social Democratic Party is a liberal-conservative political party in Portugal that is currently the country's ruling party. 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 People's Party. A party of the centre-right, the PSD is one of the three major parties in Portuguese politics, its rivals being the Socialist Party on the centre-left and the far-right Chega party.
The PSD was founded in 1974, two weeks after the Carnation Revolution. In 1976, the party adopted its current name. In 1979, the PSD allied with centre-right parties to form the Democratic Alliance and won that year's election. One year later, the party's founder and then Prime Minister, Francisco Sá Carneiro died in a plane crash. After the 1983 general election, the party formed a grand coalition with the Socialist Party, known as the Central Bloc, before winning the 1985 general election under new leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who shifted 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 CDS – People's Party, but being unable to form a minority government and went back to the opposition. Nine years later, in 2024, the party returned to power as a minority government, under a rebranded Democratic Alliance coalition, alongside CDS–PP and the People's Monarchist Party, a mandate that was renewed in May 2025. The party elected its current leader, Luís Montenegro, on 28 May 2022. Since the 2024 election, Montenegro has been the incumbent Prime Minister of Portugal.
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.
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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 Democratic People's 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 1976, the party adopted its current name. 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, 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. While the PSD had been very popular going into the election, the size of its victory far exceeded the party's most optimistic projections. A strong economy, growing above 7 percent in 1988, ushered a big convergence between Portugal and other EU countries.
The PSD won a historic third term in the 1991 election, with a slightly higher vote share than four years earlier, 50.6 percent. The early 1990s recession hit Portugal in 1993 and high levels of unemployment adding to this fiscal adjustments, eroded the popularity of the Cavaco Silva's government. The anti-tolls riots in 25 de Abril Bridge in June 1994 and the violent response from security forces, further undermined Cavaco Silva's position. In early 1995, Cavaco Silva announced he would not run for a fourth term as Prime Minister.

Post-Cavaco Silva

After 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 percent to Cavaco's 46.1 percent. The party, for the first time in 16 years, was out of government. In 1996, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was elected party leader, and held that post until 1999. At the time, the party reviewed its membership database, resulting in a correction from 183,000 in 1996 to 77,000 in 1999. Rebelo de Sousa resigned in April 1999 and shortly after, José Manuel Durão Barroso was elected party leader. The party was again defeated in the 1999 elections. The party made a big comeback in the 2001 local elections by winning several cities, like Lisbon, Porto and Sintra, from the PS and, some, against all odds and predictions. This PSD result led the then Prime Minister António Guterres to resign and the country was led to snap general elections in March 2002.

First PSD/CDS coalition government (2002–2005)

The PSD made a comeback in 2002, defeating the PS by a 40 to 38 percent margin. Despite falling short of a majority, it won enough seats to form a coalition with the CDS-PP and its leader, José Manuel Durão Barroso, became Prime Minister. During his term, Barroso aligned Portugal with the United Kingdom, the United States and Spain in the support for the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq, hosting a summit in Lajes Field, which divided public opinion.
In the 2004 European Parliament election, the PSD formed an electoral coalition with CDS-PP, the first since 1980, but was soundly defeated by the PS by 45 to 33 percent margin. A few days after the election, Durão Barroso announced his resignation from the office of Prime Minister in order to become President of the European Commission, leaving the way for Pedro Santana Lopes, by then Mayor of Lisbon and 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 of 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 major Portuguese party. She won 38 percent 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 percent of the popular vote and electing eight MEPs, while the Socialist Party only won 26.5 percent and elected seven MEPs.
Although this was expected to be a "redrawing of the electoral map", the PSD has still defeated later that year, though the PS lost its majority. Pedro Passos Coelho was elected leader in March 2010, with 61 percent of the votes.

Second PSD/CDS coalition government (2011–2015)

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. In September 2013, the party was defeated in the local elections by the PS, losing its status as the largest party in local government. Since then, the economy began to recover, with growth between 1 and 2 percent 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 percent of the votes while the Socialists captured only 32 percent, although the coalition lost 25 MPs and a more than 11 percent 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 (2015–2024)

The second 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 percent 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 percent margin and became the new party leader. After 10 years of Cavaco Silva as President of the Republic, the PSD-supported candidate, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was elected President in 2016, and reelected in 2021.
In order to avoid bankruptcy due to mounting debt, in 2017, the party, alongside the Portuguese Socialist Party, the Portuguese Communist Party, BE and the ecologist party PEV, voted in favour of abolishing party fundraising limits, thereby opening all Portuguese parties to private political donorship, that they are not obligated to disclose. The new proposal was reluctantly approved by the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
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 percent of the votes. The party recovered a lot of ground in the October 2019 general elections, achieving 28 percent of the votes, against the 36 percent 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 percent margin, thus being reelected as party leader.
In the Azores 2020 regional elections, the PSD was able to return to power, after 24 years in opposition, by forging a controversial deal with CHEGA, plus CDS, PPM and IL. The PSD won almost 34 percent of the votes, while the PS fell more than 7 pp, compared with 2016, to 39 percent, an unexpected result, and overall the right wing parties had a 1-seat majority over all the left. After 2020, the PSD controls the governments of Portugal's only two autonomous regions.
The 2021 local elections were quite positive for the PSD, despite not winning the most mayors in the country as a whole. The party, and its led-coalitions, won a combined 32 percent of the votes and were able to win, from the PS, several cities like Coimbra, Funchal and Barcelos. The main gain of the PSD was the victory in Lisbon, where Carlos Moedas defeated, against all odds and predictions, the PS incumbent mayor Fernando Medina. In October 2021, disagreements between the PS and BE-CDU led to the rejection of the 2022 budget and the calling of a snap general election for 30 January 2022. Despite a close race predicted by polls, the PSD suffered a big setback by winning just 29% of the votes and seeing the PS gaining a surprise absolute majority, with 41% of the votes. After the election, PSD leader Rui Rio opened the process to elect a new party leader. On 28 May 2022, Luís Montenegro was elected party leader by a landslide, gathering more than 72 percent of the votes.

Return to power (2024–present)

Following António Costa's resignation due to an investigation around alleged corruption involving the award of contracts for lithium and hydrogen businesses, a snap election was called for 10 March 2024. For this election, PSD, CDS–PP and PPM decided to contest the election in a joint alliance called Democratic Alliance. On election day, the AD won by a narrow 29 to 28 percent margin over the Socialist Party, and formed a minority government. 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 involving Luís Montenegro. The AD coalition was again the winner, with a stronger mandate, gathering nearly 32 percent of the votes and 91 seats. A few months later, the PSD regained its status as the largest party in local government, after surpassing the PS in the October 2025 local elections.
In the 2026 presidential election, the party's supported candidate, former party leader between 2005 and 2007 Luís Marques Mendes, polled a dismal 5th place with just 11% of the votes, causing the party to lose the Presidency of the Republic, which it had held for 20 consecutive years.

Ideology

Historical evolution

The party was founded based on classical social democracy and was a centre to centre-left party. It later became a catch-all centre-right party. The party has been described as liberal-conservative, conservative-liberal, conservative, liberal and Christian democratic.

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
;European-style social-democrats
;Agrarianism
;Liberals
;Christian democrats
;Right-wing populists
;Conservatives
;Neoconservatives
;Neoliberals
;Overlappers
;Centrists
;Transversalists

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

Seat share in the Portuguese legislative elections

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bar:1979 color:PSD from:start till:32.0 text:32.0
bar:1980 color:PSD from:start till:32.8 text:32.8
bar:1983 color:PSD from:start till:30.0 text:30.0
bar:1985 color:PSD from:start till:35.2 text:35.2
bar:1987 color:PSD from:start till:59.2 text:59.2
bar:1991 color:PSD from:start till:58.7 text:58.7
bar:1995 color:PSD from:start till:38.3 text:38.3
bar:1999 color:PSD from:start till:35.2 text:35.2
bar:2002 color:PSD from:start till:45.7 text:45.7
bar:2005 color:PSD from:start till:30.9 text:30.9
bar:2009 color:PSD from:start till:35.2 text:35.2
bar:2011 color:PSD from:start till:47.0 text:47.0
bar:2015 color:PSD from:start till:38.7 text:38.7
bar:2019 color:PSD from:start till:34.3 text:34.3
bar:2022 color:PSD from:start till:33.5 text:33.5
bar:2024 color:PSD from:start till:33.9 text:33.9
bar:2025 color:PSD from:start till:38.7 text:38.7

Organization

List of secretaries-general (second-in-command)

Source:

List of Parliamentary leaders

Source:

Prime ministers

Presidents of the Republic

Symbols

Logos

The orange color is dominant in the PSD symbols and flags since 1974 and the logo is characterized by three arrows, inspired in the Three Arrows political symbol from the German Social Democratic Party during the 1930s against Nazism. In the PSD logo, the three arrows represent freedom, equality and solidarity - a traditional social democratic motto, with its roots in the French Revolution.