Coalition PSD/CDS Coligação PSD/CDS | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | PPD/PSD.CDS-PP (official) |
| Leader | Luís Montenegro Nuno Melo |
| Founded | 1997 (just the two parties)1979 (Democratic Alliance alongPPM) |
| Ideology | Conservatism |
| Political position | Centre-right[1] toright-wing[2] |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| European Parliament group | European People's Party |
| International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International International Democrat Union |
| Member parties | Social Democratic Party CDS – People's Party |
ThePSD/CDS coalition (Portuguese:Coligação PSD/CDS, PPD/PSD.CDS-PP) is a recurringconservative[3]political andelectoral alliance inPortugal formed by theSocial Democratic Party (PPD/PSD) andCDS – People's Party (CDS-PP). The coalition is currently in government, under the nameAD – PSD/CDS Coalition.
Though the history of coalition between the two parties stretches back over 40 years, the parties have not run together in most elections and, when they did so, they always retained their own autonomous parliamentary groups afterwards.
PSD and CDS were founded after the1974 Revolution that overthrew theEstado Novo dictatorship.
Both parties have had a close affinity for the most part of their existence. Previous to any electoral alliance, they both endorsed the same presidential candidate in the first democraticpresidential election of 1976,Ramalho Eanes, who also had the backing of theSocialist Party.
The first time the two parties were together in a coalition was in thegeneral andlocal elections of 1979, under theDemocratic Alliance banner, albeit along with thePeople's Monarchist Party and theReformers [pt], a small group ofSocialist Party dissidents. This first continuous coalition lasted until 1983 and run a total of two general elections (1979 and1980) and two local elections (1979 and1982). Both parties endorsed again a single candidate in the1980 and1986 presidential elections.
In Portugal, presidential elections aren't formally partisan, although all major parties usually endorse a candidate from their ranks. In the1991 presidential elections, PSD backed incumbent SocialistPresidentMário Soares, while CDS endorsed its own former minister,Basílio Horta. Since 2001, both parties have always officially endorsed the same candidate (former PSD Prime MinisterAníbal Cavaco Silva in2006 and2011, and former PSD ministersJoaquim Ferreira do Amaral in2001 andMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa in2016 and2021). The candidates supported by PSD and CDS have won four consecutive presidential elections, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021, until being defeated in 2026.[4]
The coalition with just the two parties appeared formally for the first time in the1997 local elections and, at the local level, it has been expanded to more municipalities in each following election till today (2001,2005,2009,2013,2017 and2021), holding, as of 2021, 31 mayors out of 308 municipalities in the country.
The coalition was on the ballot in the2004 Azores regional election, asCoalition Azores (Portuguese:Coligação Açores, CA), but failed to win that election. The coalition was also on the ballot in the2023 Madeira regional election, asWe are Madeira (Portuguese:Somos Madeira, SM). The coalition has been on the ballot in two European Parliament elections,2004 asForward Portugal (Portuguese:Força Portugal, FP), and2014 asPortugal Alliance (Portuguese:Aliança Portugal, AP).
On elections for theAssembly of the Republic, the two-party coalition was tried for the first time in the2015 legislative election, asPortugal Ahead (Portuguese:Portugal à Frente, PàF), and it polled ahead with almost 39% of the votes, but was unable to remain in power as it didn't gain enough seats for a majority.
Both parties ran again along with PPM as the Democratic Alliance for the2024 European andgeneral elections, except in Madeira's constituency in the general, where only PSD and CDS ran together asFirst Madeira. After asnap election was called for 18 May 2025, PPM left the AD coalition with PSD and CDS, with the new coalition being solely between PSD and CDS, namedAD – PSD/CDS Coalition.[5]
For the2015 legislative election, PSD and CDS-PP ran under a coalition with the namePortugal Ahead. In the legislative election on 5 October 2015, the PSD/CDS-PP joint list received 36.9% of the vote and returned 102 seats in theAssembly of the Republic, with the PSD electing 5 deputies on standalone lists inMadeira andAzores.[6]
Although the coalition won the elections, and surprised many analysts and pundits, the left parties together had a majority in Parliament, and opted to negotiate aconfidence-and-supply agreement, thus refusing to allow for a second PSD/CDS-PP cabinet. For the first time in Portuguese democracy theSocialist Party, the second most voted political force in the elections, negotiated with theBE, thePCP and thePEV a formation of a new government.
Following the fall of the short-lived20th Constitutional Government, the "natural" extinction of the coalition was declared on 16 December 2015 by Passos Coelho: "No formal act is necessary to put an end to it".[7][8]
| Election | Coalition name | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Portugal Ahead | Pedro Passos Coelho | 2,085,465 | 38.6 (#1) | 107 / 230 | Coalition[a] |
| Opposition |
After the Portugal Ahead coalition dissolution, both PSD and CDS contested a few constituencies in a joint coalition: In 2022, PSD and CDS ran in a joint coalition inMadeira calledMadeira First, and inAzores both parties were joined with PPM in a coalition calledDemocratic Alliance. In 2024, the PSD, CDS and PPM ran in a joint coalition in all constituencies except Madeira, which repeated the PSD-CDSMadeira First coalition. After the departure of PPM from the 2024 Democratic Alliance, the PSD and CDS were the only parties in the coalition, renamedAD – PSD/CDS Coalition.[9]
| Election | Coalition name | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide coalitions | ||||||
| 2024 | Democratic Alliance[b] | Luís Montenegro | 1,867,464 | 28.9 (#1) | 80 / 230 | Coalition[c] |
| 2025 | AD – PSD/CDS Coalition | 2,008,488 | 31.8 (#1) | 91 / 230 | Coalition[c] | |
| Coalitions in some districts | ||||||
| 2022 | All, in coalition and separately[d] | Rui Rio | 1,707,456 | 30.7 (#2) | 77 / 230 | Opposition |
| Madeira First (Madeira) | 50,634 | 39.8 (#1) | 3 / 6 | |||
| Democratic Alliance[b] (Azores) | 28,520 | 33.9 (#2) | 2 / 5 | |||
| 2024 | Madeira First (Madeira) | Luís Montenegro | 52,992 | 35.4 (#1) | 3 / 6 | Coalition |
AsForward Portugal (Força Portugal, FP)
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | João de Deus Pinheiro | 1,132,769 | 33.3 (#2) | 7 / 21 |
An alliance was formed as thePortugal Alliance (Aliança Portugal) for the2014 European Parliament election, in which the alliance won 27.7% of the popular vote and 7 of Portugal's 21 seats in the European Parliament, sitting with theEuropean People's Party Group.[10]
AsPortugal Alliance (Aliança Portugal, AP)
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Paulo Rangel | 910,647 | 27.7 (#2) | 7 / 21 |
AsAzores Coalition (Coligação Açores, CA)
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Victor do Couto Cruz | 38,883 | 36.8 (#2) | 21 / 52 | Opposition |
AsWe are Madeira (Somos Madeira, SM)
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Miguel Albuquerque | 58,394 | 43.1 (#1) | 23 / 47 | Coalition[e] |
Only in contests where PSD and CDS-PP ran in a joint coalition.
| Election | Votes | % | Councillors | +/- | Mayors | +/- | Assemblies | +/- | Parishes | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 124,859 | 2.3 (#6) | 7 / 2,021 | New | 0 / 305 | New | 22 / 6,807 | New | 561 / 33,953 | New |
| 2001 | 472,581 | 9.0 (#4) | 114 / 2,044 |  103 | 15 / 308 | 15 | 427 / 6,876 | 392 | 2,124 / 34,569 | 1,486 |
| 2005 | 462,199 | 8.6 (#4) | 131 / 2,046 | 17 | 18 / 308 | 3 | 407 / 6,885 |  20 | 2,065 / 34,498 | 59 |
| 2009 | 540,053 | 9.8 (#3) | 157 / 2,078 | 21 | 19 / 308 | 1 | 522 / 6,946 | 115 | 2,911 / 34,498 | 847 |
| 2013 | 379,110 | 7.6 (#4) | 154 / 2,086 | 3 | 16 / 308 | 3 | 493 / 6,487 | 29 | 2,096 / 27,167 | 815 |
| 2017 | 454,222 | 8.8 (#4) | 169 / 2,074 | 15 | 16 / 308 |  0 | 539 / 6,461 | 46 | 2,486 / 27,005 | 390 |
| 2021 | 540,783 | 10.8 (#3) | 239 / 2,064 | 70 | 31 / 308 | 15 | 751 / 6,448 | 212 | 3,210 / 26,790 | 724 |
| 2025 | 749,568 | 13.6 (#2) | 301 / 2,058 | 62 | 44 / 308 | 13 | 905 / 6,463 | 154 | 4,106 / 27,973 | 896 |
The table below shows the electoral results[11] of presidential candidates who were endorsed by both parties, besides endorsements by other parties.
| Election | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||
| 1976 | António Ramalho Eanes | 2,967,414 | 61.5 (#1) | – | – |
| 1980 | António Soares Carneiro | 2,319,847 | 40.2 (#2) | – | – |
| 1986 | Diogo Freitas do Amaral | 2,628,178 | 46.3 (#1) | 2,864,728 | 48.7 (#2) |
| 2001 | Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral | 1,493,858 | 34.5 (#2) | – | – |
| 2006 | Aníbal Cavaco Silva | 2,746,689 | 50.6 (#1) | – | – |
| 2011 | 2,231,603 | 53.0 (#1) | – | – | |
| 2016 | Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa | 2,411,925 | 52.0 (#1) | – | – |
| 2021 | 2,534,745 | 60.7 (#1) | – | – | |
| 2026 | Luís Marques Mendes | 637,394 | 11.3 (#5) | – | – |
_(cropped).jpg)
| Date (start of term) | PSD | CDS-PP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 March 1992 | Manuel Monteiro | |||
| 29 March 1996 |  | Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa | ||
| 22 March 1998 | .png) | Paulo Portas | ||
| 1 May 1999 |  | José Durão Barroso | ||
| 30 June 2004 |  | Pedro Santana Lopes | ||
| 10 April 2005 | .png) | Luís Marques Mendes | ||
| 24 April 2005 | .png) | José Ribeiro e Castro | ||
| 21 April 2007 | | Paulo Portas | ||
| 28 September 2007 |  | Luís Filipe Menezes | ||
| 31 May 2008 | _(cropped).jpg) | Manuela Ferreira Leite | ||
| 26 March 2010 | .jpg) | Pedro Passos Coelho | ||
| 13 March 2016 | .jpg) | Assunção Cristas | ||
| 18 February 2018 | _(cropped%2c_Rui_Rio).jpg) | Rui Rio | ||
| 25 January 2020 |  | Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos | ||
| 2 April 2022 | | Nuno Melo | ||
| 3 July 2022 | | Luís Montenegro | ||