List of political parties in Portugal

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 Revolution, although the Popular Party had been present in some post-revolution governments and the Portuguese Communist Party in coalition with The Greens holds the presidency of several municipalities.

The parties, as of 2011, represented in the Assembly of the Republic (Parliament) are the Social Democratic Party (108 MPs), the Socialist Party (74 MPs), the Popular Party (24 MPs), the Communist Party (14 MPs), the Left Bloc (8 MPs), and the Green Party (2 MPs).

The parties

Existing parties

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

Left-wing

Name		Abbr.	Leader	History	Founded
	Left Bloc Bloco de Esquerda	BE	Francisco Louçã	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 influent 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, now deceased, 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	Garcia Pereira	A Maoist and formerly pro-Chinese party. 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 1% 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 in 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
	Socialist Party Partido Socialista	PS	António José Seguro	Social Democrat, founded in 1973, it is a party which resembles the British Labour Party or the German SPD, its leader is António José Seguro, elected with 68% of the vote on 23 July 2011.	1973
	Humanist Party Partido Humanista	PH	-	A humanist party, member of the Humanist International.	1999
	Portuguese Labour Party Partido Trabalhista Português	PTP	Amândio Madaleno	Social Democrat, founded in 2009, it is a party of the center-left.	2009

Centre

Name		Abbr.	Leader	History	Founded
	Party for Animals and Nature Partido pelos Animais e pela Natureza	PAN	Paulo Borges	Party inspired by environmentalism and strongly focused on the rights of animals that was founded on May 22, 2009.	2009
	Hope for Portugal Movement Movimento Esperança Portugal	MEP	Rui Marques	A centre political party, with humanist ideology.	2008
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic Partido Democrático do Atlântico	PDA	-	Former extreme right party which has, in the last thirty years, been shifting to the moderate left. Its influence is limited to the Azores. It defends the ultramarine status of the Azores and Madeira. It seldom gets more than 1% of the votes, even in the Azores.	1974

Centre-right

Name		Abbr.	Leader	History	Founded
	Social Democratic Party 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. Its leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, is the current Prime Minister of Portugal.	1974
	Democratic and Social Centre – 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	John Rosas Baker	A right wing green party, founded in 1993 by a faction of the People's Monarchist Party.	1993
	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
	Portugal pro life Portugal pro Vida	PPV	Luís Botelho Ribeiro	A centre-right political party that defends the principles of Catholic social teaching and the unconditional defense of life.	2009

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
	New Democracy Party Partido da Nova Democracia	PND	Manuel Monteiro	A new party which resulted from Manuel Monteiro leaving the PP. It's a conservative and populist party.	2003
	National Renovator Party Partido Nacional Renovador	PNR	José Pinto Coelho	Nationalist party, very close to the French Front National and with many members sympathetic to fascism. Although fascist parties are forbidden under the Portuguese Constitution, the PNR, as legal successor to the Democratic Renovator Party, is legal after their leaders joined the moribund PRD, changed internal regulations and positioning itself as neo-nationalist socialist but only for Nacional's their label is Labour and Nation tagged as "right".	2000

Extinct parties

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

Left

• Worker-Peasant Alliance - AOC (Aliança Operário-Camponesa)
• People's Unity Force - FUP (Força de Unidade Popular)
• Communist Electoral Front (marxist-leninist) - FEC(ML) (Frente Eleitoral Comunista)
• People's Socialist Front - FSP (Frente Socialista Popular)
• Groups for the Dinamization of the People's Unity - GDUPs (Grupos Dinamizadores da Unidade Popular)
• Internationalist Communist League - LCI (Liga Comunista Internacionalista)
• Socialist League of the Workers - LST (Liga Socialista dos Trabalhadores)
• Movement of Socialist Left - MES (Movimento de Esquerda Socialista)
• Portuguese Democratic Movement - MDP (Movimento Democrático Português)
• Movement for the Unity of the Workers - MUT Movimento para a Unidade dos Trabalhadores
• Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Communist Organization - OCMLP (Organização Comunista Marxista Leninista Portuguesa)
• Communist Party of Portugal (Marxist-Leninist) - PCP(ML) (Partido Comunista Português (Marxista Leninista))
• Communist Party (Reconstructed) - PC(R) (Partido Comunista Reconstruído)
• Popular Unity Party - PUP (Partido de Unidade Popular)
• Workers Revolutionary Party - PRT (Partido Revolucionário dos Trabalhadores)

Center-Left

• Independent Social Democratic Association - ASDI (Acção Social Democrata Independente)
• Democratic Renovator Party (Portugal) - PRD (Partido Renovador Democrático)
• National Solidarity Party - PSN (Partido da Solidariedade Nacional)
• Labour Party - PT (Partido Trabalhista)
• Leftwing Union for the Socialist Democracy - UEDS (União da Esquerda para a Democracia Socialista)

Center-Right

• Portuguese Party of the Regions - PPR (Partido Português das Regiões)

Right

• Independent Movement for National Reconstruction - MIRN (Movimento Independente para a Reconstrução Nacional)
• National Syndicalists - MNS (Movimento Nacional-Sindicalista)
• Party of the Christian Democracy - PDC (Partido da Democracia Cristã)

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties by country

External links

• "Partidos Políticos". Comissão Nacional de Eleições. http://www.cne.pt/_x.cfm?sec=05040000. Retrieved 2006-06-20. 
• "Arquivo Electrónico da Democracia Portuguesa - História dos Partidos". Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril. http://www.uc.pt/cd25a/wikka.php?wakka=histpar. Retrieved 2006-06-20. 
• "Partidos e Movimentos Portugueses". Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político. http://www.iscsp.utl.pt/~cepp/xbrowser/indexpar_n.php3. Retrieved 2005-05-17. 
• Results of the parliamentary election of 2011