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In 1985, the delegates at a PSD leadership convention astonished themselves and pretty much everyone else by handing the party to an unknown economics professor, ��������� Cavaco Silva.

But in 1987, Cavaco Silva went back to the country and secured the first of two outright parliamentary majorities which not only gave Portugal a decade of much-needed stability but also severely limited the political role and clout of the president.

That too was a reason why Cavaco Silva took the remarkable decision not to have Soares opposed when he stood for re-election in 1991.

Almost immediately after taking over his party, Cavaco Silva scrapped the alliance with the Socialists and forced an election at which the PSD won the right to form a minority administration.

He was succeeded two years later by the popular centrist ��������� Cavaco Silva, as Portugal began to attain newfound stability.