The SDP and SDS-NP are today confirming candidates for the European elections. AD changes name

The PSD and CDS-PP will meet this Monday with the national councils of the two parties to vote on candidates for the European elections and approve a change in the name of the AD electoral coalition with which they will stand in the elections.

Two meetings are scheduled for 21:00: a meeting of the PSD at a hotel in Lisbon and a meeting of the SDS-PP at the party’s headquarters, also in the capital.

In the legislative elections, the coalition, which is also part of the PPM, appeared on the ballot as the “Democratic Alliance”, followed by the abbreviations of its constituent parties. On election day, the PSD asked the National Electoral Commission to issue a notice warning about the similarity of the name to the National Democratic Alternative, but was unsuccessful.

Now, for the European elections on June 9, the three-party coalition will appear on the ballot as “AD – DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE.”

The PSD National Political Commission will meet during the day because, according to the charter, it is from this body that the proposal that will be presented to the National Council comes.

The head of the AD list is not yet officially known – the name of the current mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, is considered by some media to be the most likely – but it is already known that only one of the elected PSD representatives in 2019 could repeat herself as a candidate for the European Parliament: Lidia Pereira, recently elected vice-president of the European People’s Party and who four years ago was “number two”, according to a bet by then PSD President Rui Rio.

The head of the PSD list in 2009, 2014 and 2019, Paulo Rangel, is currently Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and three other Social Democrats elected five years ago also left the European Parliament to join the XXIV Constitutional Government: José Manuel Fernández , Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Maria da Graça Carvalho, Minister of Environment and Energy, and Claudia Aguiar, Secretary of State for Fisheries.

Alvaro Amaro, elected in 2019, resigned as an MEP on July 7 last year after a Guarda court sentenced him to a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence for malfeasance, a sentence which he announced his intention to appeal.

As for the CDS-PP, MEP and party president Nuno Melo is now part of the government as Minister of National Defense. According to several sources Lusa has consulted, the CDS is expected to list a fourth name on the AD list, which is likely to be a woman.

In the last European elections in June 2019, the SDP ran alone and achieved its worst result ever, with less than 22% of the vote, and elected six MEPs. The CDS-PP was the fifth political force with 6.2% and a seat in the European Parliament.

The agenda of the National Council of the SDP also includes an analysis of the political situation, approval of the Charter approved at the 40th National Congress, and a vote on the proposal for the Internal Regulations of the National Council (to adapt it to the new charter).

At an extraordinary congress held on November 25, the SDP approved a proposal for a normative revision of the leadership, which provides, for example, for a maximum leadership quota when choosing candidates for deputies (up to two-thirds of the total number).

Other changes currently approved are the creation of ethics regulations for all party lists, the application of parity rules in internal organs and the holding of a pre-congress meeting in cases where there is more than one candidate for the direct election of the PSD president.

A single period for elections to districts and councils is now also enshrined in the charter, and to elect the president of the SDP it is no longer necessary to have a current quota, you only need to be an active member (have a paid quota). over the past two years), and, among many other changes, introduced the possibility of electronic voting in internal elections.