Unitary Democratic Coalition
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The Unitary Democratic Coalition[1] (Template:Langx, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party (Template:Langx) and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates the political movement Democratic Intervention (Template:Langx).
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.[2] This was known as the "Geringonça" (Contraption) deal, a setup that Prime minister António Costa decided to end following the 2019 elections.[3]
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.[4] In 2024, the coalition lost their historic seat in the Beja district and for the first time lost all MPs in the Alentejo region.[5]
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.
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Coalition logo in 1987.
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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
Vote share in the Portuguese legislative elections <timeline> ImageSize = width:600 height:200 PlotArea = width:538 height:170 left:40 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify
Colors =
id:CDU value:red legend:CDU
DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:15 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0
PlotData =
bar:Seats color:claret width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1987 color:CDU from:start till:12.1 text:12.1 bar:1991 color:CDU from:start till:8.8 text:8.8 bar:1995 color:CDU from:start till:8.6 text:8.6 bar:1999 color:CDU from:start till:9.0 text:9.0 bar:2002 color:CDU from:start till:6.9 text:6.9 bar:2005 color:CDU from:start till:7.5 text:7.5 bar:2009 color:CDU from:start till:7.9 text:7.9 bar:2011 color:CDU from:start till:7.9 text:7.9 bar:2015 color:CDU from:start till:8.3 text:8.3 bar:2019 color:CDU from:start till:6.3 text:6.3 bar:2022 color:CDU from:start till:4.3 text:4.3 bar:2024 color:CDU from:start till:3.2 text:3.2 bar:2025 color:CDU from:start till:2.9 text:2.9 </timeline>
Presidential
| Election | Candidate | Votes | % | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Carlos Carvalhas | 635,867 | 12.9 (#3) | Lost Red X |
| 1996 | Jerónimo de Sousa | Withdrew | ||
| 2001 | António Simões de Abreu | 221,886 | 5.1 (#3) | Lost Red X |
| 2006 | Jerónimo de Sousa | 466,428 | 8.6 (#4) | Lost Red X |
| 2011 | Francisco Lopes | 300,921 | 7.1 (#4) | Lost Red X |
| 2016 | Edgar Silva | 183,051 | 3.9 (#5) | Lost Red X |
| 2021 | João Ferreira | 180,518 | 4.3 (#4) | Lost Red X |
European Parliament
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Ângelo Veloso | 648,700 | 11.5 (#4) | Template:Composition bar | COM | |
| 1989 | Carlos Carvalhas | 597,759 | 14.4 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Increase1 | EUL / G |
| 1994 | Luis Manuel de Sá | 340,725 | 11.2 (#4) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease1 | GUE/NGL |
| 1999 | Ilda Figueiredo | 357,671 | 10.3 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease1 | |
| 2004 | 309,401 | 9.1 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Steady0 | ||
| 2009 | 379,787 | 10.6 (#4) | Template:Composition bar | Steady0 | ||
| 2014 | João Ferreira | 416,925 | 12.7 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Increase1 | |
| 2019 | 228,045 | 6.9 (#4) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease1 | The Left | |
| 2024 | João Oliveira | 162,630 | 4.1 (#6) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease1 |
Regional Assemblies
| Region | Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/- | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azores | 2024 | Marco Varela | 1,823 | 1.6 (#7) | Template:Composition bar | Steady0 | No seats |
| Madeira | 2025 | Edgar Silva | 2,543 | 1.8 (#7) | Template:Composition bar | Steady0 | No seats |
Local elections
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Councillors | +/- | Mayors | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Álvaro Cunhal | 633,682 | 12.8 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Template:Composition bar | ||
| 1993 | Carlos Carvalhas | 689,928 | 12.8 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease7 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease1 |
| 1997 | 643,956 | 12.0 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease10 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease8 | |
| 2001 | 557,481 | 10.6 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease34 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease13 | |
| 2005 | Jerónimo de Sousa | 590,598 | 11.0 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Increase1 | Template:Composition bar | Increase4 |
| 2009 | 537,329 | 9.7 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease29 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease4 | |
| 2013 | 552,506 | 11.1 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Increase39 | Template:Composition bar | Increase6 | |
| 2017 | 489,189 | 9.5 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease42 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease10 | |
| 2021 | 410,666 | 8.2 (#3) | Template:Composition bar | Decrease23 | Template:Composition bar | Decrease5 |
Notes
References
External links
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