REN MANCO

Six months iraq after the revolution, the October 20, 1974, had held the Seventh Congress of the PCP, where the party discussed the immediate tasks and events united states in the ongoing revolution that still existed in the country. At that time already has more than 30,000 militants.
On March 11, 1975, left-wing elements of the issues Armed Forces and the mobilization of masses of the working class defeated an attempted fascist policy coup d’etat. This resulted in a left turn in Portuguese politics. The government of Prime Minister Vasco Goncalves, a senior official of the leftist Party sympathizer, nationalized banking, transport, steel industry, mining and communications companies, among other key sectors of the economy. Until the British newspaper The Times said in its front page that “capitalism has died in Portugal.” The Party fully support these measures and the agrarian reform process in the south, which led him to be the strongest support among peasants and winning vote elections in Beja and Evora with over 50 of the votes. In the heyday of the revolutionary process, the PCP reaches 100,000 members in April 1975.
One year after the Revolution took place the first democratic elections to a Constituent Assembly. Its aim was to draft a constitution to replace the education 1933. The PCP was 12.5 of the vote and 30 deputies. The resulting Constitution include references to the theoretical “socialism” and “classless society”, with bush the only opposition to the conservative Social Democratic Center (CDS).
In 1976, after the adoption of the Constitution, held the second democratic elections. The Communists increased their support to 14.5 and 40 seats. That same year held the first Festival of the newspaper Avante! and the Eighth Congress, which had as main objectives the clinton progressive struggle for socialism and the defense of revolutionary gains such as land reform the government coalition between the Socialist Party (PS) by Mario Soares and the CDS.
In 1979 the Ninth Congress was held to analyze the situation in the post-revolutionary Portugal and the need to nationalize the economy. That same year elections were held. The PCP is present in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP) to form the United People Alliance (APU). Obtained about 19 of the votes and 47 deputies. These elections were won by the rightist coalition led by Sa Carneiro, which accelerates the conservative policies to dismantle the achievements of the Revolution and political attack workers’ rights. The program, media through the Electoral Front United People (FEPU), won major victories in municipal culture elections. In 1983, after the death of Sa Carneiro in economic plane crash, elections were convened. APU won 44 seats and 18.2 . That same year was the X Congress of the PCP. To this Congress reached 200,753 members.
In 1986, Mario Soares’s victory in the first round of George bush presidential votes exceeded Salgado Zenha Communist candidate andalusia, andalusia did convene election an Extraordinary Congress Party, the XI to take the decision whether or not to support Soares versus conservative candidate Freitas do Amaral. It was decided to support the socialist candidate, won, thanks to the communist votes by a narrow margin. In 1987 the government submitted its resignation and new elections were called. The PCP is present in coalition with the Ecologist Party “Os Verdes” (ENP) and Intervention religion Democratica (ID), creating the Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU). In these elections began the decline of the Communist vote, cnn dropping to 12.2 and 31 seats.
Election of the CDU.
In 1988 he was called the Twelfth Congress, which approved a new congress program: Portugal, race an advanced democracy for the twenty-first century. The following year began the serious crisis which ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. With many militants abandoned the Party was convened in an extraordinary way the XIII Congress in 1990, reaffirmed by a large majority (unlike many other communist parties) in the “revolutionary way to socialism” and Leninism.
In the elections of 1991 accentuated the decline of the Party, with only 8.8 of the vote and 17 seats. The following year, 1992, military Carlos Carvalho was elected secretary general at the XIV Congress, replacing the veteran alvaro Cunhal. The PCP will analyze the international situation after the fall of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, and the strategy to follow to defeat the Conservative government of An bal Cavaco Silva. In 1995 the Socialists won the elections, while the CDU gained 8.6 . After the general crisis experienced following the fall of the USSR, the PCP had an active membership of about 140,000.
After a serious internal crisis and poor election results (in 2002 were under 7 of the government vote and 12 seats) in November 2004 Jeronimo de Sousa replacing Carvalhos as secretary general at the XVII Congress, whose theme was Democracy and Socialism: a future for Portugal.