ABSTRACT
Berta alvarez Miranda carried out an important study on political parties in Southern Europe countries before they entered the EU, namely, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. In it she analysed the parties’ stances vis-à-vis the EU in three key areas: the economic impact of the EU for the national economies, the limits European integration imposed on the
contours of the new economic and political regimes, and the international status European membership imparted (Alvarez-Miranda 1995:4). All pro-pluralism parties made European integration a cornerstone of their vision for Portugal. The socialist PS (Partido Socialista) and the centre-right PSD (Partido Social Democrata) evolved during the transition period to become, in 1976, fully Europeanist (Barroso 1983). On the Right the small CDS (Centro Democrático Social) embraced the cause of European integration, although it adopted an explicitly ‘atlanticist’ slant to its discourse (Alvarez-Miranda 1995:8). Among pluralist parties the PS was perhaps the most ardent supporter of European integration (Lobo and Magalhães 2001:28). Not only did it have the opportunity in the governments it formed to pursue that objective vigorously, but also its historic leader, Mário Soares, used his personal and party networks to pursue that goal.12
