Party leader, the former Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, returns for the eighth time to the 'Festa do Pontal' on Sunday, August 13th, when the Social Democrats take over the pedestrian promenade in Quarteira for their annual bash.
With less than two months to go before the local elections, the party is taking place deep inside the Algarve's socialist territory where in 2013, the Social Democrats won only five of the region's 16 councils, with the Socialist Party winning the rest, except Silves which went to the CDU under Rosa Palma.
Passos Coelho already has said that his party needs to pull out all the stops to win in the October 1st elections and has ordered Social Democratic candidates to stick to the truth, as there are "politicians who like to sell too many illusions."
As for his weak leadership position, Passos Coelho has said he will not resign if the party has a poor result in the local elections.
"I would never resign from the PSD leadership over a poor local election outcome," said Passos Coelho in April, adding that this would only destabilise the party “over elections that have local rather than national significance."
It was in 2010 that Passos Coelho took to the stage for the first time at the Social Democrats’ annual party, just four months after having becoming the PSD leader, succeeding Manuela Ferreira Leite, who never attended the festival as leader.
The following year, Passos Coelho addressed the party faithful as prime minister to a rapturous welcome.
In 2012, the party was moved to an ‘austerity approved’ nearby water-park due to "financial and logistical reasons," but in 2013, the PSD was back on the Quarteira seafront in full voice.
The Festa do Pontal was first held 38 years ago, in August 1976, when it took place in the eponymous Pontal pine forest, near the Ria Formosa in Faro.
Pedro Passos Coelho, in happier times...
