The PSD National Council approved the coalition with the SDS-PP on January 4

The PSD National Council will meet on January 4 in Braga to approve the coalition with the SDS-PP, and on January 15 to approve parliamentary candidates, a source in the Social Democratic leadership told Lusa.

On the agenda for the meeting of the party’s highest body between congresses, the only item will be “Discussion and approval of the Democratic Alliance electoral coalition for the legislative elections on March 10, 2024 and the European elections on June 9, 2024,” according to an email sent later to the media .

According to the PSD charter, the responsibility of the National Council is “to approve the general directions of the electoral program of the party government and its possible participation in national coalitions.”

The National Council next week will take place on the first day of the new edition of “Sentir Portugal”, this time in Braga. At the initiative of PSD President Luis Montenegro, he toured various areas of mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions.

On 21 December, the presidents of the PSD and SDS-PP, Luis Montenegro and Nuno Melo, announced that they would invite their parties’ national bodies to create an electoral coalition, the “Democratic Alliance”, for the March legislative and European Parliament elections. elections in June, which will include “independent individuals.”

“The presidents of the Social Democratic Party and the CDS People’s Party agreed this Wednesday to propose to the national bodies of the respective parties the conclusion of a political agreement on the formation of the Democratic Alliance, an electoral coalition with a view to the current political cycle covering the legislative and European elections of 2024,” said a joint statement of the two parties.

A press release entitled “Constitution of the Democratic Alliance” (the name of the first coalitions concluded between the PSD and SDS-PP in the 1980s, but disputed by the PPM, which was also part of them at the time) states that this agreement is “in accordance with regional commitments to hold elections in the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores in 2023 and 2024 respectively, as well as local arrangements for local elections in 2025.”

The terms of the coalition agreement are not yet known, but several sources indicate that the CDS-PP, which lost parliamentary representation in the last legislative elections, will be entitled to two eligible seats (and another two in the gray electoral zone) on the lists of parliamentary candidates.

These lists will be approved only at the next meeting of the party’s highest body between congresses, which will probably be held in Lisbon on January 15.

Initially, the schedule approved by the National Political Commission (CPN) called for the National Council to take place on the 12th, but a campaign for early regional meetings in the Azores led to a change in date.

According to the schedule, the regional and district political commissions will send their proposals for candidates for the Assembly of the Republic to the National Political Commission before January 5 after consultations with the regional, district assemblies and sections, as provided for in the party charter.

Decisive meetings of the republican and district leadership are scheduled for the period from January 8 to 11.

The SDP plans to submit the approved lists between January 23 and 25 to the various district courts, before the deadline set by the election law on the 29th of the same month.

Portugal will hold early legislative elections on March 10, 2024, planned by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, following the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa on November 7, which was the subject of an investigation by the Portuguese Ministry of State. Supreme Court Court.

The election campaign for legislative elections will take place from February 25 to March 8.