List of political parties in Portugal

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This article lists political parties in Portugal. The Portuguese political scene has been dominated by the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party since the 1974 Carnation Revolution, although the People's Party has been present in some governments and the Portuguese Communist Party in coalition with The Greens holds the presidency of several municipalities.

The parties, as of 2015, represented in the Assembly of the Republic are the Social Democratic Party (89 MPs), the Socialist Party (86 MPs), the Left Bloc (19 MPs), the People's Party (18 MPs), the Communist Party (15 MPs), the Green Party (2 MPs) and the People-Animals-Nature (1 MP). Several other parties are represented in the legislatures of the autonomous regions, the Legislative Assembly of the Azores and the Legislative Assembly of Madeira.

The parties

Existing parties

This list presents all the existing parties recognized by the Portuguese Constitutional Court.[1]

Left-wing

Name Abbr. Leader History Founded
Socialist Alternative Movement
Movimento Alternativa Socialista		 MAS Gil Garcia Formed in 2000 as a Portuguese Trotskyist political organization and it is the result of a merger between the Left Revolutionary Front (FER), and the young activists of the student movement Ruptura. The Ruptura/FER activists integrate the Left Bloc since its formation. In 2011, the movement split from the Left Bloc and formed a new party called Socialist Alternative Movement that was officialized by the Constitutional Court on July 2013. 2000
Left Bloc
Bloco de Esquerda		 BE Collective leadership (spokesperson: Catarina Martins) Formed in 1999 by several left-wing parties, it adopts a wide range of left-wing policies, concentrating its efforts on the legalisation of abortion, gay marriage and soft drugs. It portrays itself as a modern, progressive alternative to the Communist Party. In the last years the party lost some of its radical wordiness and proposals, slowly becoming a mainstream party on one hand and more closely resembling the Communist party (from where some of its founders had defected) on another. 1998
Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português		 PCP Jerónimo de Sousa The major left-wing party, founded in 1921 as the Portuguese Section of The Communist International (Comintern), has its major influence among the working class and played a major role in the opposition to the Salazar regime, being brutally repressed for the duration of the dictatorial regime. After being one of the most influential parties in the years that followed the Carnation Revolution, it lost most of its power base after the fall of the Socialist Bloc of eastern Europe, but still enjoys popularity in vast sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of Alentejo and Ribatejo and also in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon and Setúbal. It also has a major influence among the biggest Portuguese Labour Union – General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP). Its historical leader was Álvaro Cunhal. 1921
Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Reorganized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat
Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses/Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado		 PCTP/MRPP António Garcia Pereira A Maoist and formerly pro-Chinese party. It had a high-profile during the Carnation Revolution, mostly due to its verbal violence and its influence among some groups of students, although it never reached 2% of the votes or elected a single MP. Generally the largest political party without parliamentary representation. 1970
Ecologist Party "The Greens"
Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes"		 PEV - Founded in 1982 and traditionally allied with the Communist Party in the Unitarian Democratic Coalition. Although they have little expression in political life, they have some important specific knowledge and intervention about environmental issues. 1982
Workers Party of Socialist Unity
Partido Operário de Unidade Socialista		 POUS Collective leadership The last placed in the electoral scorecard, with about 0.1% of the votes, it is an almost non-existent party, although it is member of one small faction of the former Fourth International called the International Secretariat of the Fourth International. 1976

Centre-left

Name Abbr. Leader History Founded
FREE/Time to Move Forward
LIVRE/Tempo de Avançar		 L/TDA Collective leadership The Livre - Freedom, Left, Europe and Ecology (L), is a left-wing political party formed in 2013. It was legalized by the Constitutional Court in March 2014. 2013
Socialist Party
Partido Socialista		 PS António Costa Social Democrat, founded in 1973, it is a party which resembles the British Labour Party, the German SPD or the Spanish PSOE. The party was founded before the 1974 Revolution in Bad Münstereifel, West Germany, by Mário Soares, one of the main opponents of the dictatorial regime, and by other personalities. Its leader, António Costa, is the current Prime Minister of Portugal. 1973
People-Animals-Nature
Pessoas-Animais-Natureza		 PAN Collective leadership (spokesperson: André Silva) Party inspired by environmentalism and strongly focused on the rights of animals and animal welfare and which considers itself to be socially progressive, defending LGBT rights and women's rights that was founded on May 22, 2009. 2009
Portuguese Labour Party
Partido Trabalhista Português		 PTP Amândio Madaleno Social Democrat, founded in 2009, it is a party of the centre-left. 2009

Centre

Name Abbr. Leader History Founded
Democratic Republican Party
Partido Democrático Republicano		 PDR António Marinho e Pinto Founded in October 2014 by the former leader of the Portuguese Bar Association, António Marinho e Pinto. He ran as the Earth Party candidate for the 2014 Europena elections but left the party soon after to form his own party. A Eurosceptic party, defends a reform of the electoral system and reform of Justice system. It was legalized by the Constitutional Court in February 2015. 2014
Together for the People
Juntos Pelo Povo		 JPP Filipe Sousa Formed as an independent movement for the Local elections of 2013 in the municipally of Santa Cruz in Madeira. Transformed into a political party in 2015 in order to contest the regional elections in Madeira. It was legalized by the Constitutional Court in January 2015. 2015
We, the Citizens!
Nós, Cidadãos!		 NC Mendo Castro Henriques Centrist party founded in mid 2014 and legalized by the Constitutional Court in June 2015. 2015
Liberal Democrat Party
Partido Liberal-Democrata		 PLD Francisco Oliveira A centre political party, formerly known as Merit and Society Movement (Movimento Mérito e Sociedade) founded by a college professor from Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), with meritocratic policies for Portuguese society. All policies and methods were written on a book named "Mudar Portugal-A Revolução Inteligente" which means, Change Portugal-The Intelligent Revolution, written by the Party founder Eduardo Correia. In 2011 was renamed as Liberal Democrat Party. 2007
United Party of Retirees and Pensioners
Partido Unido dos Reformados e Pensionistas		 PURP António Mateus Dias Party founded in 2015 and legalized by the Constitutional Court in July 2015. The party's goal is to defend the rights of retirees and pensioners, aiming to position itself as the political voice of the members of this age group. 2015

Centre-right

Name Abbr. Leader History Founded
Social Democratic Party
Partido Popular Democrático/Partido Social Democrata		 PPD/PSD Pedro Passos Coelho The name might be somewhat misleading, as the PSD is not a traditional Social Democratic Party, being much closer to the right-wing. It is the Portuguese equivalent of any other centre-right party in Europe such as the UK Conservatives, the Spanish PP, or the German CDU. PSD was founded right after 1974 Revolution as Partido Popular Democrático (People's Democratic Party) by many personalities of the so-called "liberal wing" of the fascist regime, like Francisco Sá Carneiro, Francisco Pinto Balsemão and Joaquim Magalhães Mota. 1974
CDS – People's Party
Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular		 CDS–PP Paulo Portas A traditional Christian Democrat party, very similar to the German CSU. Also founded after the revolution it is to the right of the PSD, and advocates stringent social and religious conservatism. In 1976 it was the only party that voted against approval of a socialist constitution. After a more populist right-wing tencency with his leaders Manuel Monteiro and Paulo Portas in the early to late 1990s and early 2000s, it returned to its centrist Christian Democrat roots with Paulo Portas' second period in its leadership in the late 2000s. 1974
Earth Party
Partido da Terra		 MPT José Inácio Faria A centre-right green party, founded in 1993 by a faction of the People's Monarchist Party. 1993

Right-wing

Name Abbr. Leader History Founded
People's Monarchist Party
Partido Popular Monárquico		 PPM Paulo Estevão Small monarchist party with little political expression. It is known that the pretender heir to the Portuguese throne, Dom Duarte Pio, does not support this party, since the question of monarchical regime is considered to be above partisanship. 1974
National Renovator Party
Partido Nacional Renovador		 PNR José Pinto Coelho Nationalist party, similar to the French Front National. The PNR is the legal successor of the Democratic Renovator Party. 2000
Christian Democratic and Citizenship Party
Partido Cidadania e Democracia Cristã		 PPV/CDC Luís Botelho Ribeiro A socially conservative political party that opposes abortion and euthanasia and promotes other elements of Catholic social teaching. In July 2015, the party changed its name to Christian Democratic and Citizenship Party. This change was accepted by the Constitutional Court on August 12, 2015. 2009

Extinct parties

This list presents all the parties that were once recognized by the Portuguese Constitutional Court but ceased to exist.

Left-wing

Centre-left

Centre

Centre-right

Right-wing

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tribunal Constitucional – Partidos registados e suas denominações, siglas e símbolos

External links

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