Pedro Santana Lopes arrives at the 43rd PSD Congress
The former prime minister returns to the party he led and from which he broke away to found the Alliance. The return, symbolically welcomed alongside Luís Montenegro, ends almost eight years of formal separation from the PSD.
The president of Figueira da Foz City Council and former prime minister Pedro Santana Lopes is back in the PSD. He arrived this Saturday around midnight at the 43rd Social Democratic National Congress, in Anadia, where his return to the party as a member was formally announced.
The moment was revealed by the president of the Congressional Board, Miguel Albuquerquealready at an advanced stage of work on the Sangalhos National Velodrome.
“We have very pleasant news, which is the presence and return of Pedro Santana Lopes to our party as a militant”, declared the also leader of PSD/Madeira, in front of congressmen.
A few minutes before, Santana Lopes had entered the room and occupied a place full of symbolism: andbetween the PSD president and prime ministerLuís Montenegro, and the party’s general secretary, Hugo Soares.
Miguel Albuquerque marked the moment with a “welcome hug” to the former social democratic leader, hoping that he continues “contributing to the growth” of the PSD and the country.
In 2005, at the PSD Congress in Pombal, after the defeat in the legislature and from departure of the social democratic leadershipSantana Lopes left a warning that would be stuck to his route: “I’m not saying goodbye, I’m going to walk around“.
Two decades later, after departures, returns to the spotlight, an attempt to create a new party and a gradual rapprochement with the social democratic house, the former prime minister he even returned to the PSD.
The moment closes one of the most striking ruptures in the party’s recent history. Santana Lopes left the PSD in 2018after more than four decades of militancy, following the defeat against Rui Rio directly to the social democratic leadership. At the time, he declared that his political intervention would no longer be carried out within the party and that the relationship with the PSD had “ended”.
Shortly afterwards, founded the Alliancepolitical project with which he sought to create a new center-right force, criticism of the strategy then followed by the PSD.
The party, extinguished in 2025, never managed to assert itself electorally and Santana Lopes would end up abandon this experience toorecognizing that he had not achieved the results he intended and admitting that his figure continued to be too closely associated with the PSD.
The connection to the PSD, however, never completely disappeared. For decades it was one of the most recognizable figures in the social democratic universe.
He joined the PSD in 1976, was a deputy, MEP, secretary of state, district leader, vice-president of the party and mayor. He was elected mayor of Figueira da Foz in 1997, by the PSD, and later Mayor of Lisbona position he held when the departure of Durão Barroso for the presidency of the European Commission opened a succession crisis in the Government and the party.
In 2004, the PSD National Council entrusted him with the social democratic leadership and Santana Lopes was appointed prime minister by Jorge Sampaio.
He took office in July of that year, maintaining the PSD/CDS-PP coalition. The Government lasted a few months: in December, the President of the Republic decided to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic, citing a crisis of credibility in the executive.
In the 2005 legislative elections, the PSD led by Santana Lopes was defeated by the PS of Joseph Socrates. Despite this outcome, Santana continued to play a role in the party in the following years. He led the PSD parliamentary bench between 2007 and 2008 and returned, at various times, to contest or consider contesting for the social democratic leadership.
In recent years, the relationship with the PSD alternated approximations, public divergences and signs of rapprochement to the party.
Pedro Santana Lopes with Luís Montenegro at the 43rd PSD Congress
A turning point began to become more visible with the leadership of Luís Montenegro. In 2022, Santana Lopes admitted to being closest to the current direction than the previous one, although he then emphasized that he had not received an invitation to return to the PSD and that his municipal situation made immediate reaffiliation difficult.
Em 2024, was present at the Democratic Alliance conventionin Estoril, where he praised Montenegro and argued that, in times of electoral combat, differences should be left behind. Later, at the PSD Congress in Braga, he appeared as an “observer” and “citizen”, already in a clear movement of rapprochement.
Also in Figueira da Foz this path became politically visible. After having won the 2021 local elections as an independent, at the head of the movement Figueira the FirstSantana Lopes was re-elected in 2025 as part of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition lists, although maintaining independent status. The victory was significant: almost 59% of the votes and absolute majority in the municipal executive.
The former prime minister returns as a member of the party he ledwhich took him to São Bento and where he left to try to build a new project on the right.
The applause from Congress and the image of Santana Lopes sitting next to Montenegro gave the moment a clear reading: after years of “walking around”the former president of the party is once again at the center of the social democratic house.
