Foundation (1934–1980), PSD founder and Prime Minister (1980). The Social Democratic Party was born on 6 May 1974, when
Francisco Sá Carneiro,
Francisco Pinto Balsemão and
Joaquim Magalhães Mota publicly announced the formation of what was then called the PPD, the Democratic People's Party (). On 15 May, the party's first headquarters were inaugurated in
Largo do Rato, Lisbon. This was followed, on 24 June, by the formation of the first Political Committee, consisting of
Francisco Sá Carneiro,
Francisco Pinto Balsemão,
Joaquim Magalhães Mota,
Barbosa de Melo,
Mota Pinto,
Montalvão Machado,
Miguel Veiga,
Ferreira Júnior,
António Carlos Lima,
António Salazar Silva,
Jorge Correia da Cunha,
Jorge Figueiredo Dias and
Jorge Sá Borges. The publication was founded, its first issue being published on 13 July 1974, led by its first two directors,
Manuel Alegria and
Rui Machete. The PPD's first major meeting was held in the , Lisbon, on 25 October, and a month later the party's first official congress took place. On 17 January 1975, 6300 signatures were sent to the Supreme Court so that the party could be approved as a legitimate political entity, which happened a mere eight days later. In 1975, the PPD applied unsuccessfully to join the
Socialist International, with its membership attempt vetoed by the
Socialist Party.
Alberto João Jardim was the co-founder of the
Madeiran branch of the PSD, and governed the autonomous archipelago for decades, running as a member of the party.
Democratic Alliance governments The Democratic People's Party participated in a number of coalition governments in Portugal between 1974 and 1976, following the
Carnation Revolution. This is seen as a transitional period in Portuguese politics, in which political institutions were built and took time to stabilize. In 1976, the party adopted its current name. In 1979, the PSD formed an electoral alliance, known as the
Democratic Alliance (AD), with the Democratic and Social Centre (now called the
People's Party, CDS-PP) and a couple of smaller right-wing parties. The AD won the parliamentary elections towards the end of 1979, and the PSD leader,
Francisco Sá Carneiro, became Prime Minister. The PSD would be part of all governments until 1995. The AD increased its parliamentary majority in new elections called for 1980, but was devastated by the death of Sá Caneiro in an air crash on 4 December 1980.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão took over the leadership of both the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, as well as the Prime Ministership, but lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma, he was unable to rally popular support. The Democratic Alliance was dissolved in 1983, and in parliamentary elections that year, the PSD lost to the
Socialist Party (PS). Falling short of a majority, the Socialists formed a
grand coalition, known as the
Central Bloc, with the PSD. Many right-wingers in the PSD, including
Aníbal Cavaco Silva, opposed participation in the PS-led government, and so, when Cavaco Silva was elected leader of the party on 2 June 1985, the coalition was doomed.
Cavaco Silva governments (1985–1995) , Prime Minister 1985–1995, meeting
US President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The PSD won a plurality (but not a majority) in the
general election of 1985, and Cavaco Silva became Prime Minister.
Economic liberalization and tax cuts ushered in several years of economic growth. After a motion of no confidence was approved, early elections were called for
July 1987, which resulted in a landslide victory for the PSD, who captured 50.2 percent of the popular vote and 148 of the 250 parliamentary seats – the first time that any political party in Portugal had mustered an absolute majority in a free election. While the PSD had been very popular going into the election, the size of its victory far exceeded the party's most optimistic projections. A strong economy, growing above 7 percent in 1988, ushered a big convergence between Portugal and other EU countries. The PSD won a historic third term in the
1991 election, with a slightly higher vote share than four years earlier, 50.6 percent. The
early 1990s recession hit Portugal in 1993 and high levels of unemployment adding to this fiscal adjustments, eroded the popularity of the Cavaco Silva's government. The anti-tolls riots in
25 de Abril Bridge in June 1994 and the violent response from security forces, further undermined Cavaco Silva's position. In early 1995, Cavaco Silva announced he would not run for a fourth term as Prime Minister.
Post-Cavaco Silva After Cavaco Silva stepped down as leader in January 1995, in the following month, in the PSD congress, the party elected
Fernando Nogueira as leader. The PSD lost the
1995 election to the PS. In 1996, Cavaco Silva ran for the presidency of the republic, but he failed to defeat former Lisbon Mayor
Jorge Sampaio. Sampaio won 53.9 percent to Cavaco's 46.1 percent. The party, for the first time in 16 years, was out of government. In 1996,
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was elected party leader, and held that post until 1999. At the time, the party reviewed its membership database, resulting in a correction from 183,000 in 1996 to 77,000 in 1999. Rebelo de Sousa resigned in April 1999 and shortly after,
José Manuel Durão Barroso was elected party leader. The party was again defeated in the
1999 elections. The party made a big comeback in the
2001 local elections by winning several cities, like
Lisbon,
Porto and
Sintra, from the PS and, some, against all odds and predictions. This PSD result led the then
Prime Minister António Guterres (PS) to resign and the country was led to snap general elections in
March 2002.
First PSD/CDS coalition government (2002–2005) , Prime Minister 2002–2004, in a press briefing with
Tony Blair,
George W. Bush and
José Maria Aznar in 2003. The PSD made a comeback in
2002, defeating the PS by a 40 to 38 percent margin. Despite falling short of a majority, it won enough seats to form a coalition with the CDS-PP and its leader,
José Manuel Durão Barroso, became Prime Minister. During his term, Barroso aligned Portugal with the
United Kingdom, the
United States and
Spain in the support for the
2003 American-led invasion of Iraq, hosting a summit in
Lajes Field, which divided public opinion. In the
2004 European Parliament election, the PSD formed an electoral coalition with CDS-PP, the first since 1980, but was soundly defeated by the PS by 45 to 33 percent margin. A few days after the election, Durão Barroso announced his resignation from the office of Prime Minister in order to become President of the
European Commission, leaving the way for
Pedro Santana Lopes, by then
Mayor of Lisbon and a man with whom he was frequently at odds, to become leader of the party and Prime Minister.
Back in opposition (2005–2011) In the
parliamentary election held on 20 February 2005, Santana Lopes led the PSD to its worst defeat since 1983. With a negative swing of more than 12 percent, the party won only 75 seats, a loss of 30. The rival Socialist Party had won an
absolute majority, and remained in government after the
2009 parliamentary election, albeit without an absolute majority, leaving the PSD in opposition. , the first woman to lead a major party in Portuguese democracy and the still only woman to ever lead the PSD. The PSD-supported candidate
Aníbal Cavaco Silva won the Portuguese presidential elections in 2006 and again in 2011. After the 2005 elections,
Luís Marques Mendes was elected leader of the party. Internal infighting weakened Marques Mendes and, in September 2007, Marques Mendes was defeated by
Luís Filipe Menezes by a 54% to 42% margin. Menezes was also incapable of dealing with his internal opposition and, after just six months in the job, Menezes resigned. On 31 May 2008,
Manuela Ferreira Leite became the first female leader of a major Portuguese party. She won 38 percent of the votes, against the 31% of
Pedro Passos Coelho and the 30% of
Pedro Santana Lopes. In the
European Parliament election held on 7 June 2009, the PSD defeated the governing socialists, capturing 31.7 percent of the popular vote and electing eight MEPs, while the Socialist Party only won 26.5 percent and elected seven MEPs. Although this was expected to be a "redrawing of the electoral map", the PSD has still defeated
later that year, though the PS lost its majority.
Pedro Passos Coelho was elected leader in March 2010, with 61 percent of the votes.
Second PSD/CDS coalition government (2011–2015) Growing popular disenchantment with the government's handling of the economic crisis coupled with the government's inability to secure the support of other parties to implement the necessary reforms to address the crisis, forced the Socialist Party Prime Minister
José Sócrates to resign, leading to a
fresh election on 5 June 2011. This resulted in a non-absolute majority for the PSD, leading to a coalition government with the CDS-PP, which served a full term until the
2015 general election. During this term, many austerity policies were put into practice to reduce the budget deficit but, ultimately, created unemployment and a recession that lasted until mid 2013. In September 2013, the party was defeated in the
local elections by the PS, losing its status as the largest party in local government. Since then, the economy began to recover, with growth between 1 and 2 percent per trimester. In the
2015 general election, the PSD and CDS-PP ran in a joint coalition, called
Portugal Ahead, led by
Pedro Passos Coelho and
Paulo Portas. The coalition won the elections by a wide margin over the Socialists, capturing 38.6 percent of the votes while the Socialists captured only 32 percent, although the coalition lost 25 MPs and a more than 11 percent of the votes, thus falling well short of an absolute majority. The
PSD/CDS-PP coalition was asked by the then President of the Republic,
Aníbal Cavaco Silva, to form a government with Passos Coelho as Prime Minister.
Back in opposition (2015–2024) , party leader between 1996–1999 and
President of the Republic between 2016–2026. The second PSD/CDS government was duly formed and took the oath of office on 30 October 2015, but fell after a no-confidence motion was approved two weeks later. Its 11 days of rule make it the shortest-lived government since Portugal has been a democracy holding free elections. After that, the PSD returned to the opposition benches, and the Socialist Party was able to form an agreement with
BE and
CDU to support a PS minority government led by
António Costa. Pedro Passos Coelho continued as party leader, but a weak opposition strategy led to bad polling numbers for the PSD. All of this culminated with the results of the
2017 local elections. In these elections, the PSD achieved their worst results ever, winning just 98 mayors and 30 percent of the votes. Passos Coelho announced he would not run for another term as PSD leader. On 13 January 2018,
Rui Rio defeated
Pedro Santana Lopes by a 54 to 46 percent margin and became the new party leader. After 10 years of Cavaco Silva as President of the Republic, the PSD-supported candidate,
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was elected President in
2016, and reelected in
2021. In order to avoid bankruptcy due to mounting debt, in 2017, the party, alongside the
Portuguese Socialist Party, the
Portuguese Communist Party,
BE and the ecologist party
PEV, voted in favour of abolishing party fundraising limits, thereby opening all Portuguese parties to
private political donorship, that they are not obligated to disclose. The new proposal was reluctantly approved by the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. During his first year in the leadership, Rio faced big internal opposition and, in January 2019, Rio won a motion of confidence presented by
Luís Montenegro. In the
EP 2019 elections, the PSD achieved their worst result ever in a national election, winning just 22 percent of the votes. The party recovered a lot of ground in the
October 2019 general elections, achieving 28 percent of the votes, against the 36 percent of the PS. Nonetheless, Rio's leadership was, once again, challenged and he faced, in a
two round leadership contest in January 2020,
Luís Montenegro and
Miguel Pinto Luz. Rio won the 1st round with 49% of the votes and defeated Luís Montenegro in the 2nd round by 53 to 47 percent margin, thus being reelected as party leader. In the
Azores 2020 regional elections, the PSD was able to return to power, after 24 years in opposition, by forging a controversial deal with CHEGA, plus CDS, PPM and IL. The PSD won almost 34 percent of the votes, while the PS fell more than 7
pp, compared with 2016, to 39 percent, an unexpected result, and overall the right wing parties had a 1-seat majority over all the left. After 2020, the PSD controls the governments of Portugal's only two autonomous regions. , leader since 2022 and Prime Minister since 2024. The
2021 local elections were quite positive for the PSD, despite not winning the most mayors in the country as a whole. The party, and its led-coalitions, won a combined 32 percent of the votes and were able to win, from the PS, several cities like
Coimbra,
Funchal and
Barcelos. The main gain of the PSD was the
victory in Lisbon, where
Carlos Moedas defeated, against all odds and predictions, the PS incumbent mayor
Fernando Medina. In October 2021, disagreements between the PS and BE-CDU led to the rejection of the 2022 budget and the calling of a
snap general election for 30 January 2022. Despite a close race predicted by polls, the PSD suffered a big setback by winning just 29% of the votes and seeing the PS gaining a surprise absolute majority, with 41% of the votes. After the election, PSD leader
Rui Rio opened the process to elect a new party leader. On 28 May 2022,
Luís Montenegro was
elected party leader by a landslide, gathering more than 72 percent of the votes.
Return to power (2024–present) Following António Costa's resignation due to an investigation around alleged corruption involving the award of contracts for lithium and hydrogen businesses, a
snap election was called for 10 March 2024. For this election, PSD, CDS–PP and PPM decided to contest the election in a joint alliance called
Democratic Alliance (AD). On election day, the AD won by a narrow 29 to 28 percent margin over the Socialist Party, and formed a minority government. Three months later, in the
2024 European Parliament elections, the AD coalition was narrowly defeated by the Socialists, 31 to 32 percent. A new election was called for
May 2025, after a vote of confidence in the AD minority government was rejected, following the revelations of the
Spinumviva case involving Luís Montenegro. The AD coalition was again the winner, with a stronger mandate, gathering nearly 32 percent of the votes and 91 seats. A few months later, the PSD regained its status as the largest party in local government, after surpassing the PS in the
October 2025 local elections. In the
2026 presidential election, the party's supported candidate, former party leader between 2005 and 2007
Luís Marques Mendes, polled a dismal 5th place with just 11% of the votes, causing the party to lose the Presidency of the Republic, which it had held for 20 consecutive years. == Ideology ==