On 18 August 2018, it was revealed the new party headed and co-founded by Santana Lopes was to be called
Alliance (). The party submitted the legally required paperwork to the
Constitutional Court and was officially registered on 23 October. Immediately after the official registration, the party started working on the campaign for the
2019 European Parliament election. Santana Lopes had already said, even before the party was registered, that he would not be running in the election, and that its top candidate would be announced in the near future. On 2 December 2018, the party formally announced Paulo de Almeida Sande, a professor of European affairs and advisor of the president
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as its top candidate. While being generally considered to have a profound knowledge of European issues, Paulo Sande lacked recognition next to the general public, and relied heavily on Santana's personal popularity to engage with supporters and potential voters. In March 2019, Santana Lopes said that the party's objective would be to elect at least one
MEP, with three being a good result. Paulo Sande fared well in the televised debates, but the party suffered a heavy blow to its campaign on 15 May 2019, when Santana and Sande were involved in a car crash on the
A1 motorway. They were heading to a campaign rally in
Cascais after an event in
Coimbra when, between
Soure and
Pombal, Santana fell asleep and lost control of the vehicle, a
Lexus GS rented in name of his law firm. The car slid slowly to the left, hitting the central reservation barrier and veering abruptly to the right, crashing out of the road and tumbling several times before coming to a standstill in an overturned position. No other vehicles were involved in the accident, but other drivers witnessed it and alerted the emergency services. Paulo Sande was able to get out of the wrecked car by his own means; he tried to help Santana but was unable to release him. Santana Lopes would only be removed from the wreckage by the emergency services, and was transported by helicopter to
Coimbra hospital, to where Sande was also taken on an ambulance. The accident was reported by several media outlets, which prompted Alliance to immediately suspend its campaign. Paulo Sande suffered only minor injuries and was discharged from the hospital a few hours later, while Santana spent the night in observation, being discharged on the next day after several exams revealed no significant lesions; he was, however, told by doctors to rest for some days in order to ensure a full recovery. This meant that, with little more than a week to the election day, Paulo Sande was largely left to campaign alone, although Santana appeared on a video three days before the election to urge people to vote. The party obtained 1,86% of the vote and elected no MEPs. Next on the schedule were the
2019 legislative elections. The party made a campaign of clear opposition to the
incumbent government led by
António Costa. Santana Lopes said that Alliance hoped to elect two to three MPs in Lisbon district, and eventually some more in Porto and Braga districts; he also stressed that his party would never support a government of the
Socialist Party even in the event of a
hung parliament. Santana's predictions for the election were based at the party's results in the European elections. During a campaign event in
Lisbon, he told that Alliance obtained 3% in the district at the European elections, and that the same result would allow the party to elect two MPs in the legislative vote. This line of thought proved to be flawed as the party performed considerably worse, obtaining only 0,77% of the vote on national level and electing no MPs. Even in Lisbon district, where it is easier for a small party to elect an MP, the party scored 1,27% of the vote, considerably lower than the 3% anticipated by Santana. On the election night, he admitted for the first time that he could relinquish party leadership. Without further national elections in the near future, and with all the objectives unachieved, Santana Lopes suspended his executive functions as Alliance's leader on 15 May 2020, and announced a period of reorganisation of the party. On 28 August 2020, it was announced that he would not seek re-election as party leader at the next congress, where he was succeeded by Paulo Bento. On 25 January 2021, Alliance announced that Santana Lopes had sent a request for his party membership to be terminated. He considered that Alliance could only have a future without him, citing the fact that many people still link him to the
Social Democratic Party as the main reason. ==Independent politician and return to Figueira da Foz==