Democratic Alliance (Portugal)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alliance poster
Alliance poster

The Democratic Alliance (Portuguese: Aliança Democrática or AD) was a coalition in Portugal between the Social Democratic Party (Portuguese: Partido Social Democrata or PSD), the Democratic Social Center (Portuguese: Centro Democrático Social or CDS) and the People's Monarchist Party (Portuguese: Partido Popular Monárquico or PPM). The coalition was first formed in 1979 in order to run to the legislative election of the same year. It was led by Francisco Sá Carneiro and Freitas do Amaral and won the legislative elections of 1979 and 1980, but lost the presidential election of 1980.

After the death of Sá Carneiro on 9 December 1980, the coalition was unable to find a leader with his charisma. Francisco Pinto Balsemão, the new Social Democratic leader, became Prime Minister, but was unable to consolidate the support enjoyed by his predecessor. After its defeat in the municipal elections of 1982, it was disbanded in 1983.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa led an attempt to establish a new Democratic Alliance in 1998, between the Social Democrats and the People's Party (the former CDS), lead by Paulo Portas. It contested the European Parliament elections of 2004 under the Força Portugal label, but was subsequently dissolved.

Languages