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Social-Democrat Party (Portugal)

Partido Social-Democrata

Last modified: 2014-12-12 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: politics | social-democrat party | partido social-democrata | arrow (white) | arrow: upper fly | arrows: 3 | ppd/psd |
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• Social-Democratic Party
• 1990 version
• 2004 Elections
• Madeiran section
• Social-Democratic Youth

• Portuguese political flags
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Social-Democratic Party

The Social Democratic Pary (PSD - Partido Social-Democrata) is the previous ruling party, won two absolute majorities in the ’80s and in the beginning of the ’90s. Ideologically, it is a liberal-conservative party, but was able to congregate the vast majority of the right-wing votes. Appeared shortly after the revolution of 1974 as Popular Democratic Party (PPD - PPD/PSD MadeiraDemocrático). For a while the two names coexisted. The flag remains the same since the beginning (except for the change from PPD to PPD-PSD and then to PSD): an orange field with 3 overlapping curved arrows (in black, red and white) ranging from lower right to upper center and the initials of the party in white in the right. For a while the first ’P’ came in black. The initials are written in italic.
Jorge Candeias, 3 Sep 1997

Orange in actual flags vary from a very bright and light shade to near red.
Jorge Candeias, 22 Feb 2001

The flags currently in use replaced the “fat” white lettering that can be seen in these images with a thinner and more “stylish” black lettering. Jorge Candeias, 21 Feb 2001

1984 version

This image made it possible to measure accurately the proportions of this asymmetrical orange over white bicolour, which seem to be something in the lines of 21:4. It also shows something I didn't think was like this: that the three black, red and white arrows rest on the white band: I thought that they kindle "floated" on the orange area (which would make for a much more balanced flag). The rest, the black lettering on the white part, with the party sigla and the party name in pretty narrow capital italics, are as I remembered from the time, and the same arrangement of name and sigla appears in other versions of this flag (this party changed the flag it uses many, many times over the years, with a lot of variations of the central theme of an orange field with arrows).
Source: Pública Magazine #425 (supplement of the Público newspaper at sundays), edition 18 July 2004
Jorge Candeias, 13 Feb 2007

I am wondering about the orange colour of the PSD flags, already used in 1984, or even earlier. Orange is not a traditionally used political colour. It is only used by the Humanist Parties all around the world.
More recently it has been adopted by a variety of largely conservative parties, e.g. the German CDU, the Swiss CVP, the Romanian DA coalition, the Italian UDEUR and also the right-wing BZÖ in Austria. Of course it is also connected to the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine. It is fair to assume that not all these recent events are independent from each other, but I can't see who has copied from whom (UDEUR probably from CDU, I am pretty sure). The main question remains who was the first to use orange as a colour in the context of a major center-right party? Perhaps it was the Portuguese PSD? What was the reason for the adoption of orange by the PSD?
M. Schmöger, 25 Feb 2007

1990 version

Variation with all white letters

Variation with red "P"

Variation with no letters

2004 elections

Madeiran section (PPD/PSD)

image by Jorge Candeias and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

image by Jorge Candeias and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

image by Jorge Candeias and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

I’ve seen this flag of the local Madeiran PSD with slight differences from the national, namely the word "Madeira" below the acronym in black letters.
Jorge Candeias, 19 Feb 2001

The dominant political party on the island is PPD/PSD (conservative). The flag is hoisted mainly (and very frequently) on private houses and even used as a scarecrow in the crops. It is the first time that I see a political flag used that way… I have found it incredible to see all of these party flags hoisted everywhere. At first sight, I thougt it was a marxist-leninist local party. There were houses with two to five flags hoisted everywhere possible. In a bar, I even saw a picture of a football team with the party logo on the players’ shirts.
Ivan Sache, 18 Feb 2001 and 20 Feb 2001

Variant #1
The shade of the sheet is nearly the same like that one of the central arrow. The inscription in white italics "PPD/PSD", below in black italics and smaller "MADEIRA".
Source: I spotted this flag hoisted on top of the bar "Alto Monte", the sede of the party's Monte branch on 21 February 2012
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

Variant#2
The same like variant #1, but the basic shade as usual.
Source: I spotted this flag hoisted on the gable of a private house somewhere in the Santo António borough on 19 February 2012.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

Variant#3
The same like variant #2, but "MADEIRA" not in italics.
Furthermore, I can confirm the information of Ivan given 11 years ago that the orange flags of the PPD in fact are used as scarecrows all over the island. The people of Madeira know, how to use party flags properly. First I wasn't aware that it is a party flag.
Source: I spotted this flag hoisted on top of the bar "Alto Monte", the sede of the party's Monte branch on 21 February 2012.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Mar 2012

Social-Democratic Youth

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