The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October. All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention. The right-wing coalition

Portugal Ahead The Portugal Ahead ( pt, Portugal à Frente, PàF) was a conservative political and electoral alliance in Portugal formed by the Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD) and CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP). History The alliance was formed as the Po ...

(PàF), composed of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(PSD) and the People's Party (CDS-PP), won the single largest vote with 38.6% and securing almost 47% of the seats in the Assembly. Compared with 2011, this was a loss of 12% in support (although the PSD and the CDS–PP did not contest the 2011 election in coalition). On the electoral map, the coalition won every district in the North and in the Centre except Castelo Branco. They also won in the big districts of Lisbon and Porto. The map shows a clear north–south divide, with the conservative coalition winning almost everything in the North and Centre and the PS winning in the South. The

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

(PS) was the second most voted political force, winning 32.3% of the vote and 37% of the seats in the Parliament. The PS received a higher share of the vote than in 2011, but did not increase its share by as much of a margin as had been predicted by the opinion polls prior to September 2015. António Costa, former mayor of Lisbon, was not able to win the city of Lisbon, where the PS lost to PàF 35% to 37%. Although the PS and the other left-wing parties did win a clear overall majority in Parliament, in his concession speech Costa said that he would not support "a negative coalition" with the Left Bloc and Communist Party and that he would rather talk and negotiate with the PSD/CDS–PP coalition. The Left Bloc (BE), despite predictions by opinion polls, achieved its best result in history, with more than 10% of the vote, becoming the third largest parliamentary group. The CDU's (Communists and Greens) share of the vote increased slightly compared to 2011, receiving 8% of the vote and one additional MP. The

People–Animals–Nature People–Animals–Nature ( pt, Pessoas-Animais-Natureza, PAN) is an environmentalist, animal rights and animal welfare focused political party in Portugal, founded in 2009. In 2015, they won one seat in the Assembly of the Republic.

(PAN) also elected one member of parliament becoming the first time since 1999 in which a new party entered the Assembly.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

reached a new low, with just 55.8% of the electorate casting their ballot on election day. Passos Coelho was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a minority government that took the oath of office on October 30, 2015. The government fell after the approval of a motion to bring it down on 10 November. On 24 November, António Costa was appointed by the President of the Republic as Prime Minister-designate. Costa was sworn in on 26 November 2015.

Background

2011–2014 Portugal bailout management

After the PSD/CDS–PP government was sworn in, a series of austerity policies, following the bailout deal, were inacted and created several backlash and protests. In September 2012, further austerity policies led to one of the biggest demonstrations against a government in Portuguese democracy, with more than 1 million people going out to the streets across the country. Because of this massive protest, the coalition government was deeply shaken and was forced to drop several policies. In the summer of 2013, another crisis in the coalition government emerged. The

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

Vítor Gaspar Vítor Louçã Rabaça Gaspar (born 9 November 1960), GCIH is a Portuguese economist and former politician, who served as Minister of Finance and Minister of State in the XIX Constitutional Government of Portugal from 21 June 2011 until his re ...

resigned in late June 2013, and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 118th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) b ...

choose the Treasury Secretary,

Maria Luís Albuquerque Maria Luís Albuquerque (born 16 September 1967 in Braga) is a Portuguese politician. She served as Minister of State and Finance between 2013 and 2015. Early life and education Albuquerque is married and has three children. She graduated in ec ...

, to be the next Finance minister. However, CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP) leader,

Paulo Portas Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962, ) is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, t ...

, criticized the choice of the new minister and announced his "irrevocable" resignation from the government. Prime Minister Passos Coelho didn't accepted Portas's resignation and refused also to leave his office, opting, instead, to negotiate a new government organization with Portas. A deal was reached a few days later, in which Portas would become Deputy Prime Minister and with more powers on economic affairs. But,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Aníbal Cavaco Silva refused to accept the deal and forced negotiations between PSD and PS, in which a deal between parties to maintain economic stability and snap elections in 2014 were on the table. Despite the Presidential preassures, talks between PSD and PS fell apart and Cavaco Silva was forced to accept the PSD/CDS–PP original deal. The

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

(PSD) suffered a considerable setback in the 2013 local elections by gathering just 31% of the votes and 106 mayors, a drop of 33 cities, while the

Socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...

(PS) obtained their best result till that date, 150 mayors, a gain of 18, and won almost 37% of the votes. In May 2014, Portugal was successful in exiting the economic bailout that was negotiated in 2011.

Leadership changes

Socialist Party

After

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he ...

resignation from the party's leadership, due to the poor result of the Socialists in the

2011 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2011. * Local electoral calendar 2011 * National electoral calendar 2011 * 2011 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 2011 Beninese presidential election * 2011 Beninese parliamentary ...

, a snap leadership election was called to elect a new leader for 22 and 23 July 2011. There were two candidates on the ballot:

António José Seguro António José Martins Seguro (born 11 March 1962) is a Portuguese politician for the Socialist Party (PS). Seguro was Secretary General of the PS from 2011 until September 2014, and he was the leader of the largest opposition party in the Por ...

and Francisco Assis. Seguro was elected by a landslide and the results were the following: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , style="background:#f6f;", , align=left ,

, align=right , 23,903 , align=right , 68.0 , - , style="background:#f6f;", , align=left , Francisco Assis , align=right , 11,257 , align=right , 32.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 367 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 35,527 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Official results
The 2014 Portuguese Socialist Party prime ministerial primary was held on 28 September 2014. Following the party's disappointing result in the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

, in which the PS got just 31% of the votes against the 28% of the PSD/CDS coalition, then

Mayor of Lisbon This is a list of mayors of Lisbon ( pt, Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, CML, literally: "President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon", and also pt, Presidente do Município de Lisboa, literally: "President of the Municipality of Lis ...

António Costa called the results "tiny" (''poucochinho''), and challenged

for the leadership. It was the first open primary in the history of the party, and of Portugal, and elected the party's candidate for Prime Minister for the 2015 general election. In end, only two candidates ran: António José Seguro, General Secretary of the party at the time of the primary, and António Costa, mayor of Lisbon. António Costa won the primary by a landslide with 67.9% of the vote against the 31.7% of Antonio José Seguro, resulting in Seguro conceding defeat and resigning as General Secretary of the party. Thereafter, Costa was elected as the new Socialist General Secretary on 22 November 2014. The results were the following: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , António Costa , align=right , 120,188 , align=right , 67.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=right , 55,928 , align=right , 31.5 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 1,234 , align=right , 0.7 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 177,350 , align=right , 70.71 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Official Results

Left Bloc

One year after the disappointing results of the party in the

, the then Left Bloc leader,

Francisco Louçã Francisco Anacleto Louçã (; born 12 November 1956 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese economist and politician. Biography He is the second son of António Seixas Louçã, a Portuguese Navy Officer, and his wife Noémia da Rocha Neves Anacleto, lawyer, ...

, decided to leave the leadership and a party convention was held to elect a new leader. In November 2012, the party elected a dual leadership headed by João Semedo and Catarina Martins. , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , João Semedo
Catarina Martins , align=right , 359 , align=right , 76.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , João Madeira , align=right , 110 , align=right , 23.5 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 469 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results
However, bad polling and election results, specially the

results, put pressure in the party's leadership, and a new party convention, in 2014, showed a very divided party as the dual leadership of Semedo and Martins was reelected by a very slim margin. The results were the following: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , João Semedo
Catarina Martins , align=right , 266 , align=right , 50.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Pedro Filipe Soares , align=right , 258 , align=right , 49.2 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 524 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results
Just 7 days after the very close result in the party's convention, on 30 November 2014, João Semedo resigned as party coordinator and Catarina Martins became to sole party coordinator.

Date

According to the Portuguese Constitution, an election must be called between 14 September and 14 October of the year that the legislature ends. The election is called by the

President of Portugal The president of Portugal, officially the president of the Portuguese Republic ( pt, Presidente da República Portuguesa, ), is the head of state and highest office of Portugal. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, an ...

but is not called at the request of the

, however the President must listen all the parties represented in Parliament and the election day must be announced at least 60 days before the election. If an election is called in the middle of the legislature (Dissolution of Parliament) it must be held at least in 55 days. Election day is the same in all multi-seats constituencies, and should fall on a Sunday or national holiday. The next legislative election must, therefore, took place no later than 11 October 2015. After meeting with all of the parties represented in parliament on 21 July 2015, the President Aníbal Cavaco Silva called the election for 4 October.

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

to be approved. The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the

district magnitude An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

. The use of the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...

makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties. For these elections, and compared with the 2011 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Parties

Parliamentary factions

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 12th legislature (2011–2015):

Contesting parties

The parties and coalitions that contested seats to the Portuguese parliament, and their leaders, were:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

After changes in the electoral law that obligated that all of the parties contesting an election should be represented in debates, the 3 main TV networks RTP,

SIC The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

and TVI proposed 3 debates between the two main candidates António Costa and

and also a series of head-to-head debates between various party leaders and one debate with all party leaders. After meetings with the various parties, it was decided to hold two face-to-face debates between António Costa and Pedro Passos Coelho in which one will be broadcast on television and the other on radio. There was also going to be a debate between all the parties represented in Parliament but it was cancelled by the refusal of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition to have only the leader of the PSD on the debate and not also the leader of the CDS-PP,

Completed televised debates:

Opinion polling

Results

The results display a relative victory of the right-wing coalition, but they also display a combined victory of the left-wing parties (including the Socialist Party), with a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...

(a right-wing single winner and a left-wing majority parliament).

National summary

, - , colspan=11, Assembly of the Republic election, 2015 results

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:left;" alignleft,

Parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

! rowspan="2" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", % ! rowspan="2" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", ± pp swing ! colspan="5" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;", MPs ! rowspan="2" style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", MPs %/
votes % , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;", 2011 ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;", 2015 ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", ± ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", % ! style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:right;", ± , - , , 1,993,504, , 36.86, , 10.9, , 124, , 102, , 22, , 44.35, , 10.5, , 1.20 , - , , 1,747,730, , 32.32, , 4.3, , 74, , 86, , 12, , 37.39, , 5.2, , 1.16 , - , , 550,945, , 10.19, , 5.0, , 8, , 19, , 11, , 8.26, , 4.8, , 0.81 , - , , 445,901, , 8.25, , 0.4, , 16, , 17, , 1, , 7.39, , 0.4, , 0.90 , - , , 80,841, , 1.49, , , , 7, , 5, , 2, , 2.17, , 0.9, , 1.45 , - , , 75,170, , 1.39, , 0.4, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 0.43, , 0.4, , 0.31 , - , , 61,920, , 1.13, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 60,045, , 1.11, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 39,330, , 0.73, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 27,286, , 0.50, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 22,627, , 0.42, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 21,382, , 0.40, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , style="width:10px; background:#CC0033; text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;" , ACT! , 20,793, , 0.38, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 14,916, , 0.28, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 14,275, , 0.26, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 13,899, , 0.26, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 7,496, , 0.14, , , , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0.00, , 0.4, , 0.0 , - , style="width:10px; background:#0093dd; text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;" , Alliance Azores , 3,624, , 0.07, , , , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#000080 align="center" , , align=left, Citizenship and Christian Democracy , 2,685 , , 0.05, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#CC0033 align="center" , , align=left, Labour , 1,744, , 0.03, , , , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; ", Total valid , style="width:65px; text-align:right; ", 5,206,113 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 96.27 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 0.4 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 230 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 230 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 0 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 100.00 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 0.0 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", — , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 112,955, , 2.09, , 0.6, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 89,024, , 1.65, , 0.3 , - style="background:#e9e9e9;" , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; ", Total , style="width:65px; text-align:right; ", 5,408,092 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", 100.00 , style="width:40px; text-align:right; ", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 9,684,922, , 55.84, , 2.2 , - , colspan=11 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Diário da República - Resultados Oficias

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 , PàF !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , BE !colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 ,

PSD PSD may refer to: Educational bodies * Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, a Pre-K to 12th grade school for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Philippine School Doha, a Filipino scho ...

!colspan=2 , PAN , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , style="background:; color:white;", 40.3 , 3 , 7.8 , - , 2.5 , - , 36.1 , 2 , 0.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 48.1 , 10 , 27.9 , 5 , 9.6 , 1 , 4.4 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="11" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.0 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 20.1 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 37.3 , 1 , 8.2 , - , 25.0 , 1 , 0.8 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 45.6 , 10 , 30.9 , 7 , 8.8 , 1 , 5.2 , 1 , 0.8 , - , 19 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 49.4 , 2 , 34.1 , 1 , 5.5 , - , 3.1 , - , 0.6 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , 35.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 38.9 , 2 , 10.0 , - , 6.0 , - , 0.8 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 37.2 , 4 , 35.3 , 4 , 9.9 , 1 , 7.0 , - , 1.0 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old ...

, 23.9 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 37.5 , 1 , 8.6 , - , 21.9 , 1 , 0.9 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , 31.5 , 3 , style="background:; color:white;", 32.8 , 4 , 14.1 , 1 , 8.7 , 1 , 2.0 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 45.6 , 2 , 33.8 , 2 , 7.4 , - , 4.0 , - , 0.9 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Leiria , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 48.4 , 6 , 24.8 , 3 , 9.7 , 1 , 5.1 , - , 1.2 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Lisbon , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 34.7 , 18 , 33.5 , 18 , 10.9 , 5 , 9.8 , 5 , 2.0 , 1 , 47 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Madeira , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 20.9 , 2 , 10.7 , 1 , 3.6 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 37.8 , 3 , 1.8 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , 27.6 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.4 , 1 , 9.2 , - , 12.2 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="9" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 0.8 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 39.6 , 17 , 32.7 , 14 , 11.1 , 5 , 6.8 , 3 , 1.6 , - , 39 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 35.8 , 4 , 32.9 , 3 , 10.8 , 1 , 9.6 , 1 , 1.2 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

, 22.6 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 34.3 , 7 , 13.1 , 2 , 18.8 , 4 , 1.9 , - , 18 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 88,725, in an area of 319.02 km². The urbanized area of the municipality, comprising the city, ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 45.5 , 4 , 29.8 , 2 , 8.0 , - , 5.2 , - , 0.9 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality cover ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 51.0 , 3 , 33.1 , 2 , 5.2 , - , 3.0 , - , 0.6 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...

, style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 51.1 , 6 , 29.7 , 3 , 6.7 , - , 3.5 , - , 0.7 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 39.1 , 1 , 29.9 , 1 , 5.8 , - , 5.9 , - , 0.9 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 48.5 , 2 , 10.8 , - , 1.6 , - , 1.5 , - , 1.8 , - , 2 , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:#00aaaa; color:white;", 36.9 , 102 , 32.3 , 86 , 10.2 , 19 , 8.3 , 17 , 1.5 , 5 , 1.4 , 1 , 230 , - , colspan=14 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Legislativas 2015

Maps

File:Eleições legislativas 2015 PS-Coligação-EN.png, Most voted political force by

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

autonomous region An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy� ...

. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 2015 (Mapa) alternativo.png, Most voted political force by

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. File:Eleições legislativas 2015 Esquerda parlamentar-EN.png, Percentage of votes for the left-wing parties represented in the Parliament, by

. File:Portuguese legislative election results, 2015 Left parties - Right parties-b.svg, Most voted-for political fields by district/autonomous regions: Left: PS, BE, CDU; Right: PàF.

Aftermath

Government formation

The

, the Left Bloc, the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and the Greens started negotiations to form a left-wing majority coalition government. On 19 October 2015, the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party, António Costa, rejected the proposal for a post-election coalition government with the right-wing alliance PàF. On the next day, Costa said that the Socialist Party would reject in the parliament any government that would be led by

and supported by the right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead. During the same day, António Costa guaranteed to President Aníbal Cavaco Silva that the Socialist Party had the conditions to form a government, supported in the parliament by the Left Bloc and the Communist Party. After being consulted by the President, the Socialist Party, the Left Bloc, the Communist Party and the Greens expressed their intention to support a government of the Socialist Party, led by António Costa. Among the most likely scenarios that were considered for a new government were: * A right-wing (PàF) minority government without the support of the Socialists (without majority support from the new parliament; rejected by Costa); * A right-wing (PàF) minority government with the parliamentary support of the Socialists (rejected by Costa); * A grand coalition government including the right-wing coalition (PàF) and the Socialists (rejected by Costa); * A minority government of the Socialist Party with the parliamentary support of the Left Bloc and the Communists (most likely); * A left-wing coalition government including the Socialists, the Left Bloc and the Communists; * A caretaker government, until new elections are held, if the parties fail to reach an agreement. On 22 October, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva controversially designated Pedro Passos Coelho to form a new government, which after taking the oath of office had 10 days to submit its programme in Parliament. But the PS, BE and CDU had already stated that they would call a motion of rejection to bring down the government. On 23 October, the new Assembly of the Republic was opened.

Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues Eduardo Luís Barreto Ferro Rodrigues (born 3 November 1949) is a Portuguese politician and economist who had been President of the Assembly of the Republic since 2015 until 29 March 2022, in the 13th (2015–2019) and 14th Legislatures (201 ...

, a Socialist, was elected as President of the Assembly with the support of the Socialists, the Communists, the Left Bloc and the Greens. He received 120 votes against 108 votes for the government's candidate. The members of the second Passos Coelho government took the oath of office on 30 October. The government programme was to be voted in the Parliament on 10 November.

Fall of the government

The Socialist Party reached agreements with the three other left-wing parties: the Left Bloc, the Communists and the Greens. Those agreements were eventually approved by the national organs of the Socialist Party on 8 November. On 10 November, the Portugal Ahead government programme was rejected in a motion of rejection by a vote of 123 to 107 MPs. On 26 November, a new

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

was established as a Socialist Party minority government led by Prime Minister António Costa.

Notes

References

External links

Popstar Poll Tracker

Marktest Opinion Poll Tracker

Official results site, Portuguese Internal Administration Ministry

Portuguese Electoral Commission

ERC - Official publication of polls

NSD: European Election Database - Portugal
publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1991-2011 {{Portuguese elections Legislative elections in Portugal Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) 2015 elections in Portugal October 2015 events in Portugal