Portugal’s president dissolves parliament and marks elections for May 18

Portugal is to go to the ballot boxes on May 18 after a political crisis failed to be resolved this week in the country’s Parliament.

The Government fell on Wednesday and the President of the Republic realising that there was no other solution,  has decided to schedule a general election – the third in three years.

“Unexpectedly, a political crisis arose like so many others”, he began in an address to the nation on national TV before questioning the government’s wisdom in taking the decision to call for the vote of confidence in the Portuguese parliament in the first place – the same question he had already put during a meeting of the Council of State today. “Why did the Government announce and present the motion of confidence and the opposition parties reject it?”

“This shock, not just legal or political, but above all an ethical and moral judgment on a person and his reliability, raised a new issue: all efforts at understanding, even a minimal understanding, proved impossible,” he continued, speaking about the Spinumviva scandal, a company that belonged to the prime minister, was signed over to the prime minister’s wife, and is now owned by the prime minister’s sons, and the contractual relations with several companies including the Solverde casinos.

In his address to the country after that meeting of the Council of State, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called for a “clear, dignified debate” in the 65 days left before the election.

According to a statement released on the Presidency of the Republic website, the Council of State, which met at the President’s official residence Belém Palace, “unanimously agreed under Article 145(a) of the Constitution, to dissolve (the Portuguese parliament) – the Assembly of the Republic”.

“The President of the Republic has therefore decided, after hearing its representative political parties and the opinion of the Council of State, that he will dissolve (parliament) the Assembly of the Republic and schedule the elections for May 18, 2025,” it reads.

According to the parliament’s electoral law, in the event of dissolution, the head of state sets the date of the legislative elections at least 55 days in advance.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa met this Thursday with the Council of State after parliament rejected the motion of confidence presented by the government on Wednesday afternoon when there were still attempts at negotiations with the opposition PS party, but which ended without an agreement.

After listening to the parties, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was inclined to set the date for May 18, even though some parties and the prime minister suggested May 11 as the ideal date.

After a first term of stability with António Costa’s PS government supported by the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) and PCP Communist Party (Dubbed the ‘Geringonça’ or Jalopy), the President of the Republic has now used his constitutional right to dissolve parliament and call elections (nicknamed the “atomic bomb” by the Portuguese press) three times in his second term as president: the first time to dissolve Parliament following the rejection of the then government’s proposed State Budget for 2022; then because of the resignation of PS Prime Minister António Costa following Operation Influencer (a Public Ministry investigation into allegations of influence peddling and corruption over multi-million-euro investments in lithium contracts and data centres); and now in the case of Spinumviva and the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and contracts with a major Portuguese casino group whose licence from the State was up for renewal.

Image: epa11962382 Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announces the date for the country’s third general election in just over three years, following Parliament’s rejection of a government motion of confidence, at Palacio de Belem in Lisbon, Portugal, 13 March 2025. The motion was presented by Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who faced questions regarding the activities of a consultancy firm he founded, which is now managed by his sons. EPA/JOSE SENA GOULAO
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