Politics of PortugalBenedict (Viktor) Gombocz

Location: Southern Europe, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Spain

Area◦ Total: 92,090 sq km

◦ Country comparison to the world: 111

◦ Land: 91,470 sq km

◦ Water: 620 sq km (note: includes the Azores and Madeira Islands)

Area – comparative: Slightly smaller than Indiana

Land boundaries: ◦ Total: 1,214 km

◦ Border countries: Spain 1,214 km

Coastline: 1,793 km

Geography of Portugal

Physical Map of Portugal

The politics of Portugal function in a structure of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, with the PM as head of government, and of a multi-party structure.

The head of state is the President of the Republic, who has several important powers, which he frequently exercises.

The Council of Ministers exercises executive power. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of the

Republic. Since 1975, the party structure is ruled by the social democratic Socialist Party and

the liberal conservative Social Democratic Party. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Overview of Portugal’s political system

The national and regional governments are ruled by two political parties: the PS (a Social Democratic party that bears resemblance to the British Labour Party or the German SPD) and the PSD (a conservative party and member of the EPP), who have related base politics in some themes; both are pro-Europe and advocate the market economy.

Other parties with seats in the parliament are the Portuguese Communist Party, the People’s Party, the Left Bloc, and the Green Party.

The Communists and the Greens are in coalition as the Unitarian Democratic Coalition. Pedro Passos Coelho is as of 2011 the PM for the liberal conservative Social Democratic Party

in coalition with the right-wing conservative People’s Party; a majority in the 132 MPs Parliament support that coalition.

With 74 MPs, the Socialist Party (ex-PM José Sócrates’ party) is now the main opposition party.

Parties represented to the left of the governing coalition are the Portuguese Communist Party (16 MPs), the Green Party (2 MPs), and the Left Bloc (8 MPs).

Political background

Executive branch

Powers of the Executive branch Main office holders

The President, elected to a five-year term by direct, widespread suffrage, is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Presidential powers include nominating the PM and Council of Ministers (in which the President needs to be directed by the assembly election outcomes), discharging the PM, dissolving the assembly to call early elections, rejecting legislation (which the assembly can overrule), and calling a state of war or siege.

The Council of State, a presidential advisory body, is comprised of six senior civilian officers, any ex-presidents elected under the constitution of 1976, five members selected by the assembly, and five chosen by the President.

The presidentially nominated PM, who names the Council of Ministers, leads the government.

A new government has to specify the extensive outline of its policy in a program and present it to the assembly for a compulsory period of debate.

The assembly’s failure to refuse the program by a majority of delegates confirms the government in office.

Office: President◦ Name: Aníbal Cavaco Silva ◦ Party: Social Democratic Party◦ Since: 9 March 2006

Office: Prime Minister◦ Name: Pedro Passos Coelho◦ Party: Social Democratic Party◦ Since: 21 June 2011

The presidency, the PM and Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament), and the judiciary are the four major parts of the national government.

The Assembly of the Republic is a unicameral body consisting of up to 230 delegates.

Elected by universal suffrage in line with a structure of proportional representation, delegates serve terms of office of four years, the exception being when the president dissolves the assembly and calls for new elections.

Legislative branch

Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata)

Socialist Party (Partido Socialista) People’s Party (Partido Popular) Communist Party (Partido

Comunista Português) Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda) Green Party (Os Verdes)

Parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic

The court of last appeal is the national Supreme Court. Military, administrative, and fiscal courts are assigned as separate court

categories. A nine-member Constitutional Court evaluates the constitutionality of

legislation.

Judicial branch

Portugal is divided into 18 districts (plural - distritos, singular – distrito) and two self-governing regions (plural - regiões autónomas, singular - região autónoma): Aveiro, Azores (Açores), Beja, Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa, Madeira, Portalegre, Porto, Santarém, Viana de Castelo, Vila Real, Viseu.

Administrative divisions

Born in Boliqueime on 15 July 1939. 19th and current President of Portugal;

was sworn in on 9 March 2006. Won the Portuguese presidential election

on 22 January 2006; was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term.

Was also PM of Portugal from 6 November 1985-28 October 1995.

His ten-year tenure as PM was the lengthiest of any PM since António de Oliveira Salazar; was the first Portuguese PM to have obtained a complete parliamentary majority under the current constitutional structure (which was created after Portugal’s redemocratization after the Carnation Revolution).

Aníbal Cavaco Silva

Born 24 July 1964 in Coimbra. 118th and current PM of Portugal since

21 June 2011. Also the current leader of the Social

Democratic Party (PSD) since 26 March 2010.

Was active in political life early on; became the national leader of the PSD’s youth branch.

Is a commerce executive by trade; has led the XIX Governo Constitucional (Portugal’s 19th Constitutional Government) as head of government since 21 June 2011.

Pedro Passos Coelho

Centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Portugal.

Often known by its Portuguese acronym, PSD; on ballot papers, its acronym appears as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party’s initial name, Democratic People’s Party (Partido Popular Democrático).

Won the June 2011 election; acquired 108/230 seats in the Assembly of the Republic.

Was founded in 1974, two weeks subsequent to the Carnation Revolution.

Allied in conjunction with centre-right parties to found the Democratic Alliance in 1979; won the legislative election that same year.

Formed a grand coalition with the competitor Socialist Party following the 1983 legislative election, prior to winning the legislative election in 1985 under new party leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva.

Cavaco Silva served as PM for ten years, implanting significant economic liberalisation and winning two landslide victors.

Lost the 1995 legislative election after Cavaco Silva resigned.

Returned to power in 2002 under José Manuel Durão Barroso, but lost the 2005 legislative election.

Current PM Pedro Passos Coelho, the PSD’s current leader, became its leader on 26 March 2010; became PM the following year.

In spite of its name, it belongs to the centre-right, to the right of the Socialist Party and the left of the People’s Party; its initial political position, after it was founded as the People’s Democratic Party, was left of centre and social democratic, but it shifted to the right in the 1980s.

Member of the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat International; previously belonged to the ELDR and the Liberal International until 1996.

Issues the weekly newspaper Povo Livre (Free People).

Social Democratic Party

Social-democratic political party in Portugal. Founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad

Münstereifel, by radicals from Portuguese Socialist Action (Portuguese: Acção Socialista Portuguesa).

Its current leader is António José Seguro; its leader until 5 June 2011 was ex-PM of Portugal José Sócrates.

Lost the June 2011 legislative election; currently holds 74/230 seats in the Portuguese Parliament.

Is prominent because roughly one third of its members in the Assembly of the Republic are women.

Sócrates stepped down as General Secretary on the night of 5 June 2011, after the PS’s defeat in the general election by a margin higher than anticipated.

On 23 July, Seguro was elected the PS’s new leader; won 68% of the vote against his opponent, Francisco Assis, who pulled 32%.

Member of Socialist International (International affiliation), Party of European Socialists (European affiliation), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (EP group), and General Union of Workers (Trade union affiliation); has seven members in the EP within the Socialists and Democrats (S & D) Group in the seventh parliament.

Socialist Party

Lisbon

The End (a extremidade)