Unitary Democratic Coalition

The Unitary Democratic Coalition^[6] (Portuguese: CDU – Coligação Democrática Unitária, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party (Portuguese: Partido Comunista Português or PCP) and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates the political movement Democratic Intervention (Portuguese: Intervenção Democrática or ID).

Unitary Democratic Coalition Coligação Democrática Unitária
Abbreviation	CDU PCP–PEV
Leader	Paulo Raimundo
Founded	1987
Preceded by	United People Alliance
Headquarters	Rua Soeiro Pereira Gomes 3, 1600-019 Lisboa
Youth wing	Juventude CDU
Membership	47,612 in 2024 (PCP) c. 6,000 in 2007 (PEV)
Ideology	Communism[1][2] Eco-socialism[3] Hard Euroscepticism[4][5]
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
European Parliament group	The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL
Colours	Blue (official)   Red (customary)   Pea green[a]   Green
Member parties	PCP PEV ID
Assembly of the Republic	4 / 230
European Parliament	1 / 21
Regional Parliaments	0 / 104
Local government (Mayors)	19 / 308
Local government (Parishes)	112 / 3,058
Election symbol
Website
www.cdu.pt
Politics of Portugal Political parties Elections

The coalition was formed in 1987 in order to run to the simultaneous legislative election and European Parliament election that were held on July 19 of that year. It achieved its best result in the 1987 elections both nationally and locally. From 1991 until 2019, the party consistently won between six and ten percent of the national vote in elections to the Assembly of the Republic until 2022 and 2024, in which the coalition dropped below 5% nationally for the first time. The coalition supported the minority Socialist Costa Government from 2015 until 2019 with a confidence and supply agreement.

History

Since the beginning of the coalition, the member parties have never participated separately in any election. The Communist Party is the major force of the coalition and has the majority of places in the electoral lists while the Greens are a smaller party. For example, the Greens were responsible for 2 members of parliament among the 17 elected by the coalition in the 2015 legislative election. Each party has its own parliamentary group and counts as a separate party in official issues.

Along with the Left Bloc, the coalition supported the minority Socialist Costa Government from 2015 until 2019 under a confidence and supply agreement.^[7] This was known as the "Geringonça" (Contraption) deal, a setup that Prime minister António Costa decided to end following the 2019 elections.^[8]

In the 2022 election, the CDU won six seats while the Greens achieved zero seats. In the 2024 election, the CDU won four seats and the Greens zero, with the coalition achieving just 3.3 percent of the votes.^[9] In 2024, the coalition lost their historic seat in the Beja district and for the first time lost all MPs in the Alentejo region.^[10]

Symbol

The present symbol of CDU shows the PCP's symbol and the PEV's symbol, a hammer and sickle and a sunflower, respectively, with the respective names below. That symbol replaced a former one that featured three hexagons with the inscription: CDU and was often used with a beehive. That was sometimes said to mean that CDU worked just like a bee (collectively and every day) and the hexagons were meant to represent the cell-based Leninist organization of the PCP.

• 
  Coalition logo in 1987.
• 
  Current logo of the coalition.

Youth organization

The coalition has a youth wing, called Juventude CDU, that develops political work in youth related subjects, along with youth-oriented activities, mainly during the electoral campaigns. The Juventude CDU is mainly composed by members of the youth wings of the parties that compose the CDU, the Portuguese Communist Youth and the Ecolojovem.

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

CDU sticker: Schedule and alert your friends: on 13 June (1999), Vote CDU to the European Parliament

CDU results in the local election of 2005. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)

Vote share in the Portuguese legislative elections

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1987	Álvaro Cunhal	689,137	12.1 (#3)	31 / 250	7	Opposition
1991		504,583	8.8 (#3)	17 / 230	14	Opposition
1995	Carlos Carvalhas	506,157	8.6 (#4)	15 / 230	2	Opposition
1999		487,058	9.0 (#3)	17 / 230	2	Opposition
2002		379,870	6.9 (#4)	12 / 230	5	Opposition
2005	Jerónimo de Sousa	433,369	7.5 (#3)	14 / 230	2	Opposition
2009		446,279	7.9 (#5)	15 / 230	1	Opposition
2011		441,147	7.9 (#4)	16 / 230	1	Opposition
2015		445,901	8.3 (#4)	17 / 230	1	Opposition (2015)
						Confidence and supply
2019		332,018	6.3 (#4)	12 / 230	5	Opposition
2022		238,920	4.3 (#6)	6 / 230	6	Opposition
2024	Paulo Raimundo	205,551	3.2 (#5)	4 / 230	2	Opposition

Presidential

Election	Candidate	Votes	%	Result
1991	Carlos Carvalhas	635,867	12.9 (#3)	Lost N
1996	Jerónimo de Sousa	Withdrew
2001	António Simões de Abreu	221,886	5.1 (#3)	Lost N
2006	Jerónimo de Sousa	466,428	8.6 (#4)	Lost N
2011	Francisco Lopes	300,921	7.1 (#4)	Lost N
2016	Edgar Silva	183,051	3.9 (#5)	Lost N
2021	João Ferreira	180,518	4.3 (#4)	Lost N

European Parliament

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1987	Ângelo Veloso	648,700	11.5 (#4)	3 / 24		COM
1989	Carlos Carvalhas	597,759	14.4 (#3)	4 / 24	1	EUL / G
1994	Luis Manuel de Sá	340,725	11.2 (#4)	3 / 25	1	GUE/NGL
1999	Ilda Figueiredo	357,671	10.3 (#3)	2 / 25	1
2004		309,401	9.1 (#3)	2 / 24	0
2009		379,787	10.6 (#4)	2 / 22	0
2014	João Ferreira	416,925	12.7 (#3)	3 / 21	1
2019		228,045	6.9 (#4)	2 / 21	1	The Left
2024	João Oliveira	162,630	4.1 (#6)	1 / 21	1

Regional Assemblies

Region	Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
Madeira	2024	Edgar Silva	2,217	1.6 (#8)	0 / 47	1	No seats
Azores	2024	Marco Varela	1,823	1.6 (#7)	0 / 57	0	No seats

Local elections

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Councillors	+/-	Mayors	+/-
1989	Álvaro Cunhal	633,682	12.8 (#3)	253 / 1,997		50 / 305
1993	Carlos Carvalhas	689,928	12.8 (#3)	246 / 2,015	7	49 / 305	1
1997		643,956	12.0 (#3)	236 / 2,021	10	41 / 305	8
2001		557,481	10.6 (#3)	202 / 2,044	34	28 / 308	13
2005	Jerónimo de Sousa	590,598	11.0 (#3)	203 / 2,046	1	32 / 308	4
2009		537,329	9.7 (#3)	174 / 2,078	29	28 / 308	4
2013		552,506	11.1 (#3)	213 / 2,086	39	34 / 308	6
2017		489,189	9.5 (#3)	171 / 2,074	42	24 / 308	10
2021		410,666	8.2 (#3)	148 / 2,064	23	19 / 308	5

Notes

1. since 2022

References

1. THE STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE (2016) via Politico EU
2. The State of Populism in Europe 2017 via Academia
3. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Portugal". Parties and Elections in Europe.
4. Godinho, Luísa (2019). "The local construction of Euroscepticism: a downsian approach to the positioning of the Portuguese Communist Party vis-à-vis the European project". Centro de Estudos Internacionais (CEI-ISCTE).
5. "Europeias: CDU defende "outro projeto" europeu, PS alerta que ideia "é muito perigosa"" (in Portuguese). Diário de Notícias. 7 May 2019.
6. "Elections for the National Parliament, 4th October 2015". 28 September 2015.
7. "Presidente da República indicou Secretário-Geral do PS para Primeiro-Ministro" (in Portuguese). Presidência da República. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
8. Borges, Liliana (11 October 2019). "Catarina Martins lamenta fim da "geringonça"". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 16 March 2024.
9. "CDU desce ainda mais e renova pior resultado eleitoral de sempre". Sapo24 (in Portuguese). 11 March 2024. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
10. "Alentejo. PCP fica sem deputados no ex-bastião e Chega elege três". Renascença (in Portuguese). 11 March 2024. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

External links

• CDU Official Site
• Portuguese Communist Party Official Site
• "The Greens" Official Site