The Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Portuguese: Partido Otimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique, PODEMOS) is a Mozambican political party of the democratic socialist ideology founded on 7 May 2019 by a sector of the ruling Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) dissident from the leadership headed by President Filipe Nyusi.

PODEMOS was founded in 2018 when the electoral court rejected the independent candidacy of Samora Machel Jr., son of Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique, for mayor of Maputo in the 2018 municipal elections.

Many members of the Youth Association for the Development of Mozambique (AJUDEM), an internal political group of FRELIMO that supported Machel, participated in the founding of PODEMOS in May of the following year.

The party finally obtained legal registration a week after the announcement of its foundation, on 14 May.

Less than a month after its founding, on 11 June 2019, PODEMOS announced Hélder Mendonça, a little-known musician, as its presidential candidate.