The 1976 Portuguese legislative election was held on Sunday 25 April, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

. With a new Constitution approved, the country's main aim was economic recovery and strengthening its democratic institutions. The election renewed all 263 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party won a plurality of votes, almost 35 percent, and legislative seats, and its leader

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...

became the Prime Minister of the 1st Constitutional Government on 23 July 1976. The lack of a socialist majority forced his party to form an unexpected coalition with the Democratic and Social Center, a right-wing party. The nature of this coalition, between a socialist party and a conservative party that voted against the new constitution because of its socialist influences, surprised most Portuguese voters and marked the start of the Socialist Party's right-wing turn that would soon be attacked by all the left due to the new government's measures against left-wing reforms following the Carnation Revolution, mainly concerning

agrarian reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

, in what was called the PS putting "Socialism in the drawer". The Social Democratic Party (then known as the ''Democratic People's Party'', PPD) won the second most votes and seats, 24 percent of the votes, but polled 10 points below the PS. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) achieved considerable gains that reflected its growing influence, mainly in the south of the country, gaining 14 percent of the votes. The big surprise in the elections was the strong showing of the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), which polled ahead of PCP and gathered 16 percent of the votes. Only 19 years later, in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, would the CDS again surpass the PCP in number of votes.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

fell to 83.5 percent, compared with the 91.7 percent just a year before.

Background

Ongoing Revolutionary Process

The previous elections, held on April 25, 1975, elected a new assembly to write a new Constitution. The election results gave the two main moderate parties (PS and PPD) a clear majority in Parliament, with almost 38 percent for the PS and more than 26 percent for the PPD. The PCP achieved a weak result, just 12.5 percent, while the CDS polled ahead of the MDP. The election results started a conflict of legitimacy between parties, the

Armed Forces Movement 230px, A mural dedicated to the MFA, it reads: "Towards freedom. Long live the 25th of April!" The Armed Forces Movement (; MFA) was an organization of lower-ranking officers in the Portuguese Armed Forces. It was responsible for instigating th ...

and the Revolutionary Council. It was the start of the Ongoing Revolutionary Process, which culminated in the Hot Summer of 1975. On May 1, 1975, the PS and the PCP held separate rallies and some violent clashes occurred between PS and PCP supporters. A few days later, in what was called "The República case", far-left supporters invaded the headquarters of República newspaper. The reason was a strike by the typographers and other workers, many close to the far-left UDP, accusing the editorial board of being too aligned with the PS. The case drew widespread international attention, and the PS started a full blown attack against the PCP and Prime Minister

Vasco Gonçalves General Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves Order of Aviz, OA (; Lisbon 3 May 1921 – 11 June 2005) was a Portugal, Portuguese army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution and later served as Prime Minister of Portug ...

government. Positions become extreme as

led the Ongoing Revolutionary Process. He started facing big opposition from the so-called "reactionaries" (the Catholic Church, groups close to the former Estado Novo regime and, unofficially, from the PS, PPD and CDS.), therefore,

continued and forced his

Democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...

policies with the nationalization of huge parts of the Portuguese economy.

Hot Summer of 1975

By the beginning of the summer of 1975, the country was deeply divided. The "Hot summer of 1975" was starting. During this period, huge clashes between left and right supporters spread all across the country, some with big violence. The possibility of the country entering in a full blown

Civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

was feared by many. On 19 July 1975, the PS held a massive rally in Lisbon, with the help of the Catholic Church and others, to fight against the PCP and

government.

, PS leader, accused the Gonçalves government, and those who support it, of being "Paranoids", "Demented" and "Irresponsibles who do not represent the Portuguese people". During the summer of 1975, headquarters of the PCP, and other left-wing parties, in many cities in the North and Center of the country were vandalized and destroyed. Many leftwing supporters were also violently beaten by anti-left protesters. The violence and increased tensions across the country were damaging

leadership in the government and divisions between the

and the Revolutionary Council were starting to show. When COPCON commander, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, withdrew his support from Gonçalves, the government was on its last days. On 20 September, Gonçalves leaves the government and Pinheiro de Azevedo is nominated as Prime Minister. Shortly after, on 26 September, the assault of the Spanish embassy in Lisbon by far-left supporters, in retaliation to the attacks on left-wing parties headquarters in the North and Center, drew widespread attention as it was broadcast by US network CBS.

25 November Coup and normalization

The new government was unable to control the tensions in the country and by mid November the government made the extraordinary announcement that they were on strike because there were no conditions to govern the country. Just before this announcement, construction workers unions surrounded Parliament and blocked MPs from leaving the building for two days. All of this culminated in the events of the Coup of 25 November 1975. The coup was an attempted by left-wing activists who hoped to hijack the

Portuguese transition to democracy Portugal's redemocratization process started with the Carnation Revolution, Carnation Revolution of 1974. It ended with the enactment of the Constitution of Portugal in 1976. Background: the Salazar-Caetano era The 28 May 1926 coup d'état ...

in favor of Communists. The coup failed and shortly after a counter-coup led by

Ramalho Eanes Ramalho is a Portuguese surname. Ramalho may refer to: People *João Ramalho (1493–1580), Portuguese explorer *Ramalho Ortigão (1836–1915), Portuguese writer *Rosa Ramalho (1888–1977), Portuguese ceramist *José Ramalho (rower) (1901–1967) ...

, a pro-democracy moderate, and supported by PS leader Mário Soares, re-established the democratic process. By March 1976, the Constitutional Assembly finally drafted the Constitution text and was sent to approval in April 1976. The Constitution draft was heavily ideological, with many references to Socialism and with many phrases that echoed

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The t ...

. On 2 April 1976, the new Constitution was approved with the votes of all parties with the exception of CDS, which voted against citing the ideological content of the document. However, the party agreed to abide by it in the interim.

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 263 members elected to four-year terms. The total number of MPs increased to 263 from the 1975 total of 250 MPs. 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 132 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

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

district magnitude An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. The use of the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the

Hare quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...

Sainte-Laguë method The Webster method, also called the Sainte-Laguë method (), is a highest averages apportionment method for allocating seats in a parliament among federal states, or among parties in a party-list proportional representation system. The Sainte- ...

, which are more generous to small parties. For these elections, and compared with the 1975 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the Constitutional Assembly (1975–1976) and that also, some, contested the elections:

Seat changes

* On 9 December 1975, a total of 21 PPD MPs, including the party's caucus leader, Carlos Mota Pinto, leave the party and become Independents, following deep disagreements with the party leader, Francisco Sá Carneiro, regarding the ideology and policies of the party.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

The day after the elections, a round table was held on

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...

, moderated by Carlos Veiga Pereira, on the electoral results, with the participation of Mário Soares ( Socialist Party), Francisco Sá Carneiro, (

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 Form ...

), Diogo Freitas do Amaral ( Social Democratic Center), and Filipe Faria ( UDP).

Álvaro Cunhal Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal (; 10 November 1913 – 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese communist revolutionary and politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of the '' Estado Novo''. He served as secretary-general of the P ...

(

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

) declined to participate in the roundtable.

Results

National summary

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , PPD !colspan=2 , CDS !colspan=2 , PCP !colspan=2 , UDP , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Angra do Heroísmo Angra do Heroísmo (), or simply Angra, is a city and municipality on Terceira Island, Portugal, and one of the three capital cities of the Azores. Founded in 1478, Angra was historically the most important city in the Azores, as seat of the Roma ...

, 30.4 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 51.8 , 1 , 12.1 , - , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , 30.8 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 35.2 , 6 , 22.5 , 4 , 3.7 , - , 0.9 , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 32.0 , 2 , 8.2 , - , 4.2 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 44.0 , 4 , 2.2 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 32.3 , 6 , 28.6 , 5 , 21.2 , 4 , 4.2 , - , 1.0 , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , 22.6 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 33.3 , 2 , 28.3 , 2 , 2.7 , - , 0.8 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 36.4 , 3 , 22.6 , 2 , 19.9 , 2 , 6.7 , - , 1.1 , - , 7 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 40.9 , 6 , 26.7 , 4 , 12.5 , 1 , 7.3 , 1 , 1.2 , - , 12 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Évora Évora ( , ), officially the Very Noble and Ever Loyal City of Évora (), is a city and a municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of . It is the historic capital of the Alentejo reg ...

, 30.3 , 2 , 9.2 , - , 8.0 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 43.2 , 4 , 2.6 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 44.6 , 6 , 19.3 , 2 , 6.8 , - , 14.5 , 1 , 2.6 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...

, 24.9 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 53.0 , 4 , 13.3 , 1 , 1.5 , - , 1.3 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , 25.2 , 2 , 25.7 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 32.1 , 2 , 2.9 , - , 1.1 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Horta , 34.2 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 57.0 , 1 , 4.3 , - , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

, 31.1 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 31.2 , 4 , 19.4 , 2 , 7.3 , 1 , 1.0 , - , 11 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 38.3 , 25 , 16.4 , 10 , 13.2 , 8 , 21.8 , 14 , 2.6 , 1 , 58 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,2 ...

, 35.4 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 45.6 , 2 , 11.8 , - , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 41.9 , 3 , 10.1 , - , 13.9 , - , 22.0 , 1 , 1.0 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 40.7 , 18 , 27.0 , 11 , 15.7 , 6 , 8.4 , 3 , 1.5 , - , 38 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 38.5 , 6 , 19.5 , 3 , 13.9 , 2 , 16.1 , 2 , 1.7 , - , 13 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, 32.2 , 7 , 8.4 , 1 , 4.4 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 44.4 , 9 , 2.8 , - , 17 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a concelho, municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo District, Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2021 was 85,778, in an area of . The urbanized are ...

, 25.5 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 32.8 , 3 , 23.5 , 2 , 6.6 , - , 0.9 , - , 7 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the Norte, Portugal, North region, Portugal. It is also the seat of the Douro (intermunicipal community), Douro Intermunicipal communities of Portugal, intermunicipal comm ...

, 26.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 39.0 , 4 , 18.3 , 1 , 3.1 , - , 0.9 , - , 7 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the Viseu District, district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões Interm ...

, 23.0 , 3 , style="background:; color:white;", 32.2 , 4 , 31.2 , 4 , 2.3 , - , 0.9 , - , 11 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 46.1 , 1 , 32.2 , 1 , 6.9 , - , 10.1 , - , 0.8 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Rest of the World , 6.3 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 53.2 , 1 , 33.7 , 1 , 1.4 , - , 0.4 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 34.9 , 107 , 24.4 , 73 , 16.0 , 42 , 14.4 , 40 , 1.7 , 1 , 263 , - , colspan=12 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

5 largest municipalities

, - class="unsortable" ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:140px;" rowspan="2", Municipality ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:60px;" , PS ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:60px;" , PPD ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:60px;" , CDS ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:60px;" , PCP ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:60px;" , UDP ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:40px;" rowspan="2", Others ! class="wikitable sortable" style="width:40px;" rowspan="2", Turnout , - ! style="background:#FF66FF;", ! style="background:#FF9900;", ! style="background:#0093DD;", ! style="background:red;" , ! style="background:;" , , - , align="left" , Flag of Lisbon

, style="background:#FFCBFF" , 36.9
, 17.2
, 16.6
, 19.2
, 2.8
, 4.3
, 82.8 , - , align="left" , Flag of Porto

, style="background:#FFCBFF" , 38.8
, 26.0
, 16.4
, 12.0
, 2.5
, 1.9
, 88.2 , - , align="left" , Bandeira de Oeiras

Oeiras , style="background:#FFCBFF" , 38.9
, 14.4
, 10.6
, 26.6
, 3.1
, 3.9
, 83.5 , - , align="left" , Pt-lrs3

Loures Loures () is a city and a municipality in Portugal which is part of the Lisbon District, District and Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Metropolitan area of Lisbon. It is the fifth most populous municipality in the country, with a total population of 201, ...

, style="background:#FFCBFF" , 41.5
, 11.8
, 7.2
, 29.2
, 2.4
, 4.6
, 84.6 , - , align="left" , Pt-vng3

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; ), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a populati ...

, style="background:#FFCBFF" , 46.6
, 25.5
, 11.8
, 9.0
, 1.4
, 2.0
, 89.5

Highest and lowest by party

, - class="unsortable" ! colspan="2" class="wikitable sortable" style="width:140px;" , Party ! Highest ! Lowest , - , style="background:;", , align="left" , Socialist Party (PS) , align="center" ,

Olhão Olhão (), officially known as Olhão da Restauração, is a city and concelho, municipality in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 45,396, in an area of . Located near the regional capital Faro, ...

, align="center" , Calheta, Azores
, - , style="background:;", , align="left" , Democratic People's Party (PPD) , align="center" , Ponta do Sol
, align="center" ,

Moita Moita () is a municipality in the district of Setúbal (district), Setúbal in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 66,029, in an area of 55.26 km2. The municipality is part of the Greater Lisbon Area, with a demographic rate of 1.194,9/km2 ...

, - , style="background:;", , align="left" , Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) , align="center" , Sátão
, align="center" , Santa Cruz da Graciosa
, - , style="background:;", , align="left" ,

(PCP) , align="center" ,

, align="center" , Porto Moniz
, - , style="background:;", , align="left" , Popular Democratic Union (UDP) , align="center" , Borba
, align="center" ,

Pedrógão Grande Pedrógão Grande (; ) is a municipality in the district of Leiria (district), Leiria in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 3,915 in an area of . The town itself has fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, with the remaining population living in several s ...

Maps

File:1976 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg, Winner and seats by constituency. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 1976 (Mapa).png, Most voted political force by

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

Aftermath

Fall of the government

By the fall of 1977, the situation of the Portuguese economy was deteriorating. During that year's summer,

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

asked for a loan from the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

(IMF) and several austerity measures were implemented like the rise of

interest rates An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, ...

, devalue of the Escudo and budget cuts. However, the policies were quite unpopular and by late 1977 Soares was facing large opposition in the Parliament. In November 1977, he proposed a sizeable memorandum between parties and associations to seek common economic and social policies, which was rejected. Because of this rejection, Soares presented a

motion of confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

in Parliament, which he lost by a 59 vote margin. Following this vote, Soares was still able to form a second cabinet, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center (CDS), but it only lasted 8 months and after August 1978, a series of Presidential appointed cabinets were nominated which culminated in the 2 December 1979 snap election.

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político