Unitary Democratic Coalition

Unitary Democratic Coalition
Coligação Democrática Unitária
Abbreviation PCP-PEV or CDU
Leader Jerónimo de Sousa
Founded 1987
Preceded by United People Alliance
Headquarters Rua Soeiro Pereira Gomes, 3 Lisbon
Youth wing Juventude CDU
Membership 60,484 (PCP)
ca. 6,000 (PEV)
Ideology Communism,
Eco-socialism
Political position Left-wing
National affiliation Portuguese Communist Party,
Ecologist Party "The Greens",
Democratic Intervention
Colours Red
Assembly of the Republic
17 / 230
European Parliament
3 / 21
Regional Parliaments
3 / 104
Local
Government
213 / 2,086
Website
www.cdu.pt

The Unitary Democratic Coalition[1] (Portuguese: Coligação Democrática Unitária or 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 and elected 2 members of parliament among the 17 elected by the coalition in the last legislative election. Each party has its own parliamentary group and counts as a separate party in official issues.

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.

Symbol

Old symbol of CDU

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, Vote CDU to the European Parliament
CDU results in the local election of 2005. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Election year # of overall
votes		 % of overall
vote		 # of overall
seats won		 +/- Notes
1987 685,109 12.2 (#3)
31 / 250
1991 501,840 8.8 (#3)
17 / 230
 Decrease 14
1995 504,007 8.6 (#4)
15 / 230
 Decrease 2
1999 483,716 9.0 (#3)
17 / 230
 Increase 2
2002 379,870 6.9 (#4)
12 / 230
 Decrease 5
2005 433,369 7.5 (#3)
14 / 230
 Increase 2
2009 446,174 7.9 (#5)
15 / 230
 Increase 1
2011 440,850 7.9 (#4)
16 / 230
 Increase 1
2015 445,901 8.3 (#4)
17 / 230
 Increase 1

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

Note:

Local elections

Election year # of overall
votes		 % of overall
vote		 # of overall
councillors won		 +/- # of overall
mayors elected		 +/- Notes
1989 633,682 12.8 (#3)
253 / 1,997
50 / 305
1993 689,928 12.8 (#3)
246 / 2,015
 Decrease 7
49 / 305
 Decrease 1
1997 643,956 12.0 (#3)
236 / 2,021
 Decrease 10
41 / 305
 Decrease 8
2001 557,481 10.6 (#3)
202 / 2,044
 Decrease 34
28 / 308
 Decrease 13
2005 590,598 11.0 (#3)
203 / 2,046
 Increase 1
32 / 308
 Increase 4
2009 537,329 9.7 (#3)
174 / 2,078
 Decrease 29
28 / 308
 Decrease 4
2013 552,506 11.1 (#3)
213 / 2,086
 Increase 39
34 / 308
 Increase 6

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

European Parliament

Election year # of overall
votes		 % of overall
vote		 # of overall
seats won		 +/- Notes
1987 646,640 11.50 (#4)
3 / 24
1989 594,961 14.41 (#3)
4 / 24
 Increase 1
1994 339,283 11.19 (#4)
3 / 25
 Decrease 1
1999 357,575 10.32 (#3)
2 / 25
 Decrease 1
2004 309,406 9.09 (#3)
2 / 24
 Steady 0
2009 379,787 10.64 (#4)
2 / 22
 Steady 0
2014 416,925 12.69 (#3)
3 / 21
 Increase 1

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

References

  1. ↑ "Elections for the National Parliament, 4th October 2015". 28 September 2015.
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