The Citizenship and Christian Democracy ( pt, Cidadania e Democracia Cristã, PPV/CDC) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

minor right-wing

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, with an ideological foundation of anti-abortion,

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

and the

Christian right The Christian right, or the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with ...

. PPV was approved by the Constitutional Court on 1 July 2009 and defended the principles of the social doctrine of the Church. Composed by people from all political persuasions, although mostly from the conservative right, the Portugal Pro-Life presented its programme of policy proposals around the unconditional defense of life, understanding the concept of life and the various principles inherent to it as advocates Catholic Church doctrine, and Roman Catholicism as a state religion. In 27 August 2020, it was announced that the party would officially merge with Chega, after running together in the legislative and European elections of 2019.

History

The party was born after the

2007 Portuguese abortion referendum An abortion referendum took place in Portugal on 11 February 2007, to decide whether to legalise abortion up to ten weeks. The referendum was the fulfillment of an election pledge by the governing Socialist Party of Prime Minister José Sócrate ...

, aiming to be a platform for the anti-abortion movement. It was founded in 2009 with the name ''Partido Portugal Pró-Vida'' (Portugal Pro-Life Party), PPV. Its first leader was . In 2009, the PPV/CDC advocated the repeal of the

abortion law Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances ...

and of the then recent amendments to the law of divorce, the prohibition of euthanasia, the revision of standards on

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...

in schools so that parents have an active voice, the opposition to

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

, no age limit for voting (see

youth suffrage Youth suffrage, or children's suffrage, is the right of youth to vote and forms part of the broader youth rights movement. Until recently Iran had a voting age of 15; Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua have a voting age of 16 ...

), and that taxpayers should be able to determine how their taxes are spent. In 2014, in the context of the European elections, the party (with its main candidate, Acácio Valente) held a demonstration in front of the ''Clínica dos Arcos'' clinic in Lisbon, a private clinic licensed to conduct abortions. The candidate was also part of a debate in the Universidade da Beira Interior. Sérgio Cales was the party's main candidate during the 2015 legislative election. In 2015, Manuel Matias became the party's leader. In the same year, the party changed its designation to ''Partido Cidadania e Democracia Cristã'' and its initials to CDC-PPV. In 2019, the party was part of a coalition for the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

, Basta!, along with Chega, the People's Monarchist Party and a movement called Democracy 21. The party justified its participation in the coalition as an attempt to "save Portugal from cultural Marxism". Later that year, the party entered into a broad agreement with Chega, which included PPV/CDC members in its lists. PPV/CDC's then leader, Manuel Matias, ran as the head of Chega's list for

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

European Parliament

Notes

References