Unitary Democratic Coalition
Coligação Democrática Unitária
Abbreviation
  • CDU
  • PCP–PEV
LeaderPaulo Raimundo
Founded1987
Preceded byUnited People Alliance
HeadquartersRua Soeiro Pereira Gomes 3, 1600-019 Lisboa
Youth wingJuventude CDU
Membership49,960 in 2020 (PCP)
c. 6,000 in 2007 (PEV)
IdeologyCommunism[1][2]
Eco-socialism[3]
Hard Euroscepticism[4][5]
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
European Parliament group
Colours
  •   Blue (official)
  •   Red (customary)
  •   Pea green[lower-alpha 1]
  •   Green
Member parties
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

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).

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.

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

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
Decrease7 Opposition
1991 504,583 8.8 (#3)
17 / 230
Decrease14 Opposition
1995 Carlos Carvalhas 506,157 8.6 (#4)
15 / 230
Decrease2 Opposition
1999 487,058 9.0 (#3)
17 / 230
Increase2 Opposition
2002 379,870 6.9 (#4)
12 / 230
Decrease5 Opposition
2005 Jerónimo de Sousa 433,369 7.5 (#3)
14 / 230
Increase2 Opposition
2009 446,279 7.9 (#5)
15 / 230
Increase1 Opposition
2011 441,147 7.9 (#4)
16 / 230
Increase1 Opposition
2015 445,901 8.3 (#4)
17 / 230
Increase1 Opposition (2015)
Confidence and supply
2019 332,018 6.3 (#4)
12 / 230
Decrease5 Opposition
2022 238,920 4.3 (#6)
6 / 230
Decrease6 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
Increase1
1994 Luis Manuel de Sá 340,725 11.2 (#4)
3 / 25
Decrease1
1999 Ilda Figueiredo 357,671 10.3 (#3)
2 / 25
Decrease1
2004 309,401 9.1 (#3)
2 / 24
Steady0
2009 379,787 10.6 (#4)
2 / 22
Steady0
2014 João Ferreira 416,925 12.7 (#3)
3 / 21
Increase1
2019 228,157 6.9 (#4)
2 / 21
Decrease1

Regional Assemblies

Region Election Leader Votes  % Seats +/- Government
Azores 2020 João Corvelo 1,741 1.7 (#9)
0 / 57
Decrease1 No seats
Madeira 2023 Edgar Silva 3,677 2.7 (#5)
1 / 47
Steady0 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
Decrease7
49 / 305
Decrease1
1997 643,956 12.0 (#3)
236 / 2,021
Decrease10
41 / 305
Decrease8
2001 557,481 10.6 (#3)
202 / 2,044
Decrease34
28 / 308
Decrease13
2005 Jerónimo de Sousa 590,598 11.0 (#3)
203 / 2,046
Increase1
32 / 308
Increase4
2009 537,329 9.7 (#3)
174 / 2,078
Decrease29
28 / 308
Decrease4
2013 552,506 11.1 (#3)
213 / 2,086
Increase39
34 / 308
Increase6
2017 489,189 9.5 (#3)
171 / 2,074
Decrease42
24 / 308
Decrease10
2021 410,666 8.2 (#3)
148 / 2,064
Decrease23
19 / 308
Decrease5

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.
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