Portuguese Democratic Movement

The Portuguese Democratic Movement/Democratic Electoral Commission (Portuguese: Movimento Democrático Português / Comissão Democrática Eleitoral, MDP/CDE or just MDP) was one of the most important organizations of the democratic opposition to the Estado Novo. It was founded in 1969 as an electoral coalition meant to run in the non-democratic and widely manipulated parliamentary election.

Portuguese Democratic Movement Movimento Democrático Português
President	Francisco Pereira de Moura
Founded	1969 (1969)
Dissolved	28 March 1994 (1994-03-28)
Succeeded by	Politics XXI
Headquarters	Lisbon
Think tank	Democratic Intervention
Ideology	Left-wing nationalism Democratic socialism
Political position	Left-wing
National affiliation	United People Alliance (1979–1987)
Colours	Red and black
Politics of Portugal Political parties Elections

History

A MDP/CDE graffito

In 1973 the MDP took part in the Democratic Congress of Aveiro, the largest meeting of democratic militants during the dictatorship. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, it was made part of every provisional government, with exception of the 6th and in 1979 it ran in coalition with the Portuguese Communist Party in the FEPU and later in APU, achieving important electoral results.

In 1986, disagreements with the PCP arose, the coalition was dissolved and the MDP was later disbanded. A fraction formed the political association Democratic Intervention (Portuguese: Intervenção Democrática) and another group formed a new party, the Politics XXI (Portuguese: Política XXI) that now is part of the Left Bloc.

Electoral history

Assembly of the Republic

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1969	Francisco Pereira de Moura	114,745	10.3 (#2)	0 / 130	New	No seats
1973	Withrew before the ballot
1975	Francisco Pereira de Moura	236,318	4.1 (#5)	5 / 250	5	Constituent assembly
1976	Did not contest
1979	José Manuel Tengarrinha	United People Alliance		3 / 250	3	Opposition
1980				2 / 250	1	Opposition
1983				3 / 250	1	Opposition
1985				3 / 250	0	Opposition
1987		32,067	0.6 (#8)	0 / 250	3	No seats

European Parliament

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1987		27,678	0.5 (#10)	0 / 24		–
1989	António Victorino de Almeida	56,900	1.4 (#6)	0 / 24	0