Unitary Democratic Coalition

Unitary Democratic Coalition

Coligação Democrática Unitária
Unitary Democratic Coalition Coligação Democrática Unitária
Abbreviation	PCP–PEV; CDU (historical)
Leader	Jerónimo de Sousa
Founded	1987
Preceded by	United People Alliance
Headquarters	Rua Soeiro Pereira Gomes 3, 1600-019 Lisboa
Youth wing	Juventude CDU
Membership	49,960 in 2020 (PCP); c. 6,000 in 2007 (PEV)
Ideology	Communism; Eco-socialism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
European Parliament group	The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL (PCP); Greens–European Free Alliance (PEV)
Colours	Blue, green and red;
Member parties	PCP; PEV; ID
Assembly of the Republic	6 / 230
European Parliament	2 / 21
Regional Parliaments	1 / 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 Unitary Democratic Coalition^[4] (Portuguese: CDU – Coligação Democrática Unitária, PCP–PEV) 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).

The coalition was formed for the first time in 1987 in order to run to the simultaneous legislative election and European Parliament election that were held on July 19 of that year.

Since the beginning of the coalition, the member parties have never participated separately in any election. The Communist Party is the major force inside it and has the majority of places in the electoral lists, however, the Greens also have an important presence, for instance, electing 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. In the 2022 Portuguese legislative election, the Greens failed to elect any representatives.

At a local level, the coalition usually presents lists in almost every municipality and both Communists and Greens may occupy first place on the lists. As the Greens have a smaller structure, the offices of the Communist Party are used as offices of the coalition.

The coalition supported the minority Socialist Costa Government (2015–2019) with a confidence and supply agreement.

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.
Coalition letters logo.
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.

Electoral results achieved by CDU

Assembly of the Republic

File:Autocolante cdu pt 03.jpg

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	Álvaro Cunhal	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)
2015		445,901	8.3 (#4)	17 / 230	1	Confidence and supply
2019		332,018	6.3 (#4)	12 / 230	5	Opposition
2022		238,920	4.3 (#6)	6 / 230	6	Opposition

European Parliament

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
1987	Ângelo Veloso	648,700	11.5 (#4)	3 / 24
1989	Carlos Carvalhas	597,759	14.4 (#3)	4 / 24	1
1994	Luis Manuel de Sá	340,725	11.2 (#4)	3 / 25	1
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	João Ferreira	228,157	6.9 (#4)	2 / 21	1

Regional Assemblies

Region	Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
Azores	2020	João Corvelo	1,741	1.7 (#9)	0 / 57	1	No seats
Madeira	2019	Edgar Silva	2,577	1.8 (#5)	1 / 47	1	Opposition

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

References

^ THE STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE (2016) via Politico EU
^ The State of Populism in Europe 2017 via Academia
^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Portugal". Parties and Elections in Europe.
^ "Elections for the National Parliament, 4th October 2015". 28 September 2015.

External links

[1] THE STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE (2016) via Politico EU

[2] The State of Populism in Europe 2017 via Academia

[Nordsieck-3] Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Portugal". Parties and Elections in Europe.

[4] "Elections for the National Parliament, 4th October 2015". 28 September 2015.

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v t e Political parties in Portugal
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