Democratic Renewal Party
Partido Renovador Democrático
FounderRamalho Eanes[1]
Founded10 July 1985 (1985-07-10)[2]
Dissolved12 April 2000 (2000-04-12)
Merged intoNational Renovator Party
IdeologyCentrism[3]
Third Way[4]
Social democracy
Populism[5]
Political positionCentre[6] to centre-left[7][8][9]
European Parliament groupEuropean Democratic Alliance[10] (1986–89)
Socialist Group (1989–1991)
Rainbow Group (1991–1994) (had one MEP, Pedro Canavarro, elected as part of the Socialist Party lists. In 1991 he crossed the floor to join the Rainbow Group[11])
ColoursGreen

The Democratic Renewal Party (Portuguese: Partido Renovador Democrático, pronounced [pɐɾˈtiðu ʁɨnuvɐˈðoɾ ðɨmuˈkɾatiku], PRD; also Democratic Renovator Party) was a political party in Portugal, founded in 1985 with the political support of the then independent President of the Republic, Ramalho Eanes, and lasting until 2000. At the time of its foundation, it was meant to "moralize Portuguese political life" and the party positioned itself in the political centre. Its first leader was Hermínio Martinho.

History

A short time after its foundation, the PRD profited from the dissolution of the Portuguese parliament, occupied at the time by a grand coalition between the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), from both of which the PRD included dissidents (for example, on the PS side, José Medeiros Ferreira, former foreign Minister in a Mário Soares government and also a supporter of the centre-right Democratic Alliance as a dissident of the PS, and on the Social Democratic side, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, a co-founder of the PSD). Due to a disastrous economic policy, Ramalho Eanes dissolved the parliament and called for a new election where the newly founded PRD surprisingly won 18% of the vote and got 45 MPs, becoming the third major party.[12] The election did not give the majority of the seats to any party, so the party with the most votes, the Social Democratic Party, formed a minority government with PRD tactical support, sending the PSD's Socialist former coalition partners into opposition.

In the local elections of 1985, however, the party began to have difficulties, achieving only 5% of the vote and few seats. In the following presidential election in 1986, the party supported Salgado Zenha along with the Portuguese Communist Party, but its candidate did not manage to reach the second round.

In 1987, the party made a decision that would lead to its dissolution, supporting a censure motion, along with the Communists and the Socialists, that led to the fall of the first government of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, which took office after the legislative elections of 1985.[6] In the subsequent legislative election, the party lost most of its support, almost disappearing from parliament, losing 38 of its 45 MPs. Meanwhile, Ramalho Eanes had replaced Hermínio Martinho as leader of the party, a post he too left after the electoral disaster.

In the 1989 European elections, the party made a pact with the Socialist Party and elected one MEP on the Socialist electoral lists, Pedro Canavarro. In the legislative election of 1991, the party, at the time led by Canavarro, lost all of its parliamentary representation and never regained it, nor reached its previous position. Canavarro left the leadership of the party and was replaced by Manuel Vargas Loureiro, who led it until its de facto extinction. In the late 1990s, the weakened and disjointed party was taken over by extreme right-wing elements and the party became the National Renovator Party.[13]

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

Election Assembly of the Republic Government Size Leader
Votes  % ±pp Seats won +/−
1985 1,038,893 17.9%
45 / 250
 Parliamentary support 3rd Hermínio Martinho
1987 278,561 4.9% Decrease 13.0
7 / 250
 Decrease 38 Opposition 4th António Ramalho Eanes
1991 35,077 0.6% Decrease 4.3
0 / 230
 Decrease 7 Out of parliament 8th Pedro Canavarro

Local elections

Election year # of overall
votes		  % of overall
vote		 # of overall
councillors won		 +/- # of overall
mayors elected		 +/- Notes
1985 224,161 4.7 (#5)
49 / 1,975
3 / 305
1989 38,565 0.8 (#7)
4 / 1,997
 Decrease 45
0 / 305
 Decrease 3
1993 1,456 0.0 (#12)
0 / 2,015
 Decrease 4
0 / 305
 Steady 0
1997 1,487 0.0 (#17)
0 / 2,021
 Steady 0
0 / 305
 Steady 0

European Parliament

Election year # of overall
votes		  % of overall
vote		 # of overall
seats won		 +/- Notes
1987 250,158 4.4 (#5)
1 / 24
1989 N/A N/A (#5)
1 / 24
 Steady 0 Candidates in the Socialist Party list.
1994 5,941 0.2 (#13)
0 / 25
 Decrease 1

References

  1. ↑ Chilcote, Ronald H. (2010), The Portuguese Revolution: State and Class in the Transition to Democracy, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 118
  2. ↑ "TC > Partidos Políticos > Partidos registados e suas denominações, siglas e símbolos" (in Portuguese). Tribunal Constitucional. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, vol. 5, Gale Research, 1995, p. 339
  4. ↑ Leston-Bandeira, Cristina; Freire, André (2005), "Internalising the Lessons of Stable Democracy: The Portuguese Parliament", Southern European Parliaments in Democracy, Routledge, p. 81
  5. ↑ Gallagher, Tom (1989), "The Portuguese Socialist Party: the pitfalls of being first", Southern European Socialism: Parties, Elections, and the Challenge of Government, Manchester University Press, p. 25
  6. 1 2 Leston-Bandeira, Cristina (2004), From Legislation to Legitimation: The Role of the Portuguese Parliament, Routledge, pp. 125–126
  7. ↑ Freire, André (2006), "The Party System of Portugal", Die Parteiensysteme Westeuropas, VS Verlag, p. 373
  8. ↑ Amorim Neto, Octávio (2003), "Portugal: Changing Patterns of Delegation and Accountability under the President's Watchful Eyes", Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies, Oxford University Press, p. 563
  9. ↑ Puhle, Hans-Jürgen, Mobilizers and Late Modernizers: Socialist Parties in the New Southern Europe, p. 295
  10. ↑ Boissieu, Laurent de. "Élections européennes Portugal". Europe Politique (in French). Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Deputados Beirôco - Capucho, Parlamento Europeu Gabinete de Informação em Portugal (scroll down until the section on Pedro Canavarro)
  12. ↑ Leston-Bandeira, Cristina (2004), From Legislation to Legitimation: The Role of the Portuguese Parliament, Routledge, pp. 22, 126
  13. ↑ Hainsworth, Paul (2008), The Extreme Right in Western Europe, Routledge, p. 64
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