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

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

political party, with an ideological foundation of

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

, conservatism and the Christian right. PPV was approved by the Constitutional Court on 1 July 2009 and defended the principles of the

social doctrine of the Church Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

. 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 The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

as a

state religion A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular state, secular, is not n ...

. In 27 August 2020, it was announced that the party would officially merge with

Chega Chega may refer to: * Chega, Iran, a village *Chega (political party), a political party in Portugal *Chega!, a report by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor *"Chega", a 2020 song by Gaia Gozzi Gaia Gozzi, known as ...

, 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 Sócrates ...

, 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 and of the then recent amendments to the law of divorce, the prohibition of euthanasia, the revision of standards on sex education in schools so that parents have an active voice, the opposition to same-sex marriage, no age limit for voting (see youth suffrage), 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 peopl ...

Basta! Joris Vanvinckenroye (born 1977), also known by his solo moniker BASta!, is a Flemish avant-rock and experimental double bass musician and composer. He is best known for Aranis, a neo-classical chamber rock group he founded and leads, and f ...

, along with

, 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 The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims that Western Marxism is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert Western culture. The conspiracy theory misrepresents the ...

". 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.

Election results

Assembly of the Republic

European Parliament

Notes

References