Portugal’s Democratic Alliance wins election but fails to bag absolute majority

Portugal went to the polls yesterday (Sunday, May 18) with the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) winning the general election with 32.72% (1.9 million) of the vote, securing 89 MPs in parliament.

It means that in order to govern it may have to consider the unthinkable and either negotiate with the centre-left PS (Partido Socialista) or the far-right populist party Chega, the latter of which the AD has firmly rejected. (The PSD, the CDS-PP and the PPM ran together as the AD coalition, except in Madeira). As a coalition or individually, they received a total of1.867.013 votes (28,84%).

With 100% of votes tallied, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s coalition was backed by 32 percent of Portuguese voters. That sets up the Democratic Alliance to control 89 seats in the country’s parliament, far fewer than the 116 needed for a governing majority.

The PS socialists came in second place with 23.38% of the vote, down 5% on last year’s election, losing 420,000 votes and gaining just 58 seats in the Portuguese parliament, losing 20 seats on 2024.

It was the socialists’ worst performance in a general election since 1987 and resulted in the resignation of its leader, Pedro Nuno Santos.

Chega, whose election campaign was dominated in the run-up to election day with its leader André Ventura’s health problems – he collapsed twice on the campaign and had to be taken to hospital suffering from stress – came in with 22.56% of the vote and 58 seats in the parliament – neck-and-neck with the socialists.

Although Chega netted 50,000 votes less than the PS party (23.38%), the party that campaigned on an anti-corruption and immigration ticket, won 175,000 more votes than it did in 2024.

However, not all the Portuguese emigré votes are in, and Chega could pick up even more votes, possible giving it more MPs in the parliament.

In his election night victory speech, the Prime Minster, Luís Montenegro, whose family business dealings led to the calling of a general election in the first place, called AD’s result a “great victory”.

“Today, we’ve got more votes, mandates and multiplied the difference between the first classification and second classification in these elections by a factor of 10”, he said.

And when asked about making a possible coalition with Chega, the AD leader reiterated “No means no!”

Nevertheless, with Chega’s strong performance, the populist party has become the third political force in the country by far, seeing off the left-wing Bloco Esquerda and minor parties.

The ultra nationalist party has seem a meteoric rise since 2019 when it got just one seat in the Portuguese parliament.

“The system has been shaken and we represent a governing alternative,” said Chega MP Pedro Pinto as the results were finalised.

Sunday’s snap national election took place just 14 months after the last legislative vote was held. Montenegro’s center-right government collapsed after the prime minister’s integrity was called into question as a result of the so-called “Spinumviva scandal involving his family business which had contracts from the State.”

The opposition parties took umbrage with the Prime Minister’s connection to his family’s data protection agency consultancy which he founded when not in active politics, and is currently managed by his two sons.

The consultancy counts several companies that hold government contracts among its clients, but Montenegro denies any conflict of interest. The election was called when the Prime Minister gambled both his governance as AD leader and Prime Minister with a confidence vote in parliament which he subsequently, as was predicted, lost.

As for the other parties, the Liberal Initiative (IL) netted 5.5&% of the vote, L (Free) got 4.2%, the PCP-PEV communists got 3% (The PCP and the PEV ran together as the PCP/PEV coalition, which received a total of 205.436 votes (3,17%), the Bloco Esquerda (BE) bagged 2%, PAN (People Animals and Nature) 1.3% and the Monarchists 0.6%