The 1985 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic. In June of the same year, the then incumbent Prime Minister,

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 ...

, resigned from the job due to the lack of parliamentary support, the government was composed by a coalition of the two major parties, the center-right Social Democratic and the center-left Socialist, in what was called the ''Central Bloc'', however this was an unstable balance of forces and several members of each party opposed such alliance. The new leader of the Social Democratic Party,

Cavaco Silva The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese language, Portuguese) is a small Portugal, Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings. A cavaquinho player is called a ''cavaquista''. Tuning A common Mus ...

, elected in May, was among those that never supported such alliance, and short after being elected leader of the party made the coalition fall in July.

didn't run again and resigned as party leader, as he decided to run for the 1986 Presidential elections. The PS nominated

Almeida Santos Almeida may refer to: People * Almeida (surname) * Almeida Garrett (1799–1854), Portuguese poet, playwright, novelist and politician Places * Almeida, Boyacá, a town and municipality in Colombia * Almeida Municipality, Portugal ** Almeida, Por ...

, minister of state in Soares government, as intern leader and as the party candidate for Prime Minister. A new election was called by the President and the Social Democrats won with a short majority and Cavaco became the Prime-Minister. The election was the first of three consecutive election victories for the Social Democratic Party. Meanwhile, a new party had been founded by supporters of the

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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

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) ...

, the Democratic Renewal Party, led by

Hermínio Martinho Hermínio Paiva Fernandes Martinho (born 23 March 1946) is a Portuguese agricultural engineer and politician, who was the first president of the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD). Early life Hermínio Martinho was born on 23 March 1946 in Tan ...

and which the main figure of the party's campaign was First lady Manuela Ramalho Eanes, that surprisingly gained 45 MPs and more than one million votes in the election, becoming the parliamentary support of the Cavaco's government until 1987, when it removed its support, making Cavaco fall. The Communists and the Socialists lost votes and MPs, and the left would only return to the government ten years later, in 1995.

Background

Government fall

The unpopularity of the Central Bloc government was creating deep rifts between PS and PSD and also within both parties, as growing poverty, budget cuts and unemployment, due to 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 ...

bailout policies, were leading to massive protests. In February 1985,

Carlos Mota Pinto Carlos Alberto da Mota Pinto (; 25 July 1936 – 7 May 1985) was a Portuguese professor and politician who served as the prime minister of Portugal between November 1978 and August 1979. Mota Pinto was one of the first members of the Soc ...

resigned from the PSD leadership and planned to contest the next party congress. However, he died before the congress and Cavaco Silva was elected as leader. Shortly after his election, Cavaco Silva withdraw his party from the government and Soares Central Bloc government fell.

Leadership changes and challenges

PSD 1985 leadership election

By 1985, deep divisions were consuming the PSD regarding their role in the Central Bloc government with the PS. Then deputy

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 ...

and PSD leader

, resigned from the government and the party's leadership and a snap party congress was called. But, Mota Pinto, who was expected to run for the leadership in the snap congress, died suddenly just 10 days before the start of the congress in

Figueira da Foz Figueira da Foz (), officially Figueira da Foz City (), often called simply Figueira for short, is a city and a municipality in the Coimbra District, in Portugal. Practically at the midpoint of the Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coa ...

. João Salgueiro, the candidate from "Mota Pinto's wing" was expected to win easily, but former finance minister

Aníbal Cavaco Silva Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist and politician who served as the 19th president of Portugal, from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016, and as prime minister of Portugal, from 6 November 1985 to 25 October ...

surprised the party by announcing a late candidacy, in what is now known as the "Running-in of Cavaco's new Citroën". Cavaco Silva had the support of the wings against the Central Bloc, and against all odds he defeated Salgueiro by just 57 votes. 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 ,

, align=right , 422 , align=right , 53.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , João Salgueiro , align=right , 365 , align=right , 46.4 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 787 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source: Results

PS 1985 nomination selection

After the fall of the Central Bloc government,

was acclaimed as the PS candidate for the 1986 Presidential election, and shortly after,

António Almeida Santos Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

was unanimously selected as the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 1985 general elections. , - 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 ,

, colspan="2" align=right , ''

Voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "by live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by respondin ...

'' , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=right , 100.0 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 250 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 126 (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 1983 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 3rd legislature (1983–1985) and that also partook in the election:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polling

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1983 and 1985 for reference.

Results

National summary

, - , colspan=10, AR Eleicoes 1985

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , MPs , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;",

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;", 1985 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± , - , , 1,732,288, , 29.87, , 2.7, , 75, , 88, , 13, , 35.20, , 5.2 , - , , 1,204,321, , 20.77, , 15.3, , 101, , 57, , 44, , 22.80, , 17.6 , - , , 1,038,893, , 17.92, , , , , , 45, , , , 18.00, , , - , , 898,281, , 15.49, , 2.6, , 44, , 38, , 6, , 15.20, , 2.4 , - , , 577,580, , 9.96, , 2.6, , 30, , 22, , 8, , 8.80, , 3.2 , - , style="width:10px;background-color:;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" , People's Democratic Union , 73,401, , 1.27, , 0.8, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 41,831, , 0.72, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 35,238, , 0.61, , 0.4, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 19,943, , 0.34, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 19,085, , 0.33, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 12,749, , 0.22, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,653,610 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 97.49 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.1 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 48,709, , 0.84, , 0.1, , colspan=5 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 96,610, , 1.67, , 0.1 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,798,929 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 7,818,981, , 74.16, , 3.6 , - , colspan=10 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

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 , PSD !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , PRD !colspan=2 , APU !colspan=2 ,

CDS CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to: Finance * Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company * Certificate of deposit (CDs) * Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...

, - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 48.3 , 3 , 20.1 , 1 , 15.2 , 1 , 4.4 , - , 6.5 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 38.4 , 6 , 23.0 , 4 , 13.4 , 2 , 6.5 , 1 , 13.5 , 2 , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 13.7 , 1 , 20.1 , 1 , 11.6 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 44.9 , 3 , 2.2 , - , 5 , - , 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;", 32.8 , 6 , 21.8 , 4 , 16.8 , 3 , 8.5 , 1 , 14.0 , 2 , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Bragança Bragança may refer to: People *Jaime Celestino Dias Bragança, a Portuguese footballer Politics and History *House of Bragança - A Portuguese Royal House *Duke of Bragança - A Portuguese noble, and later royal, title * Bragança - One of the m ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 39.2 , 2 , 22.7 , 1 , 6.9 , - , 5.3 , - , 17.1 , 1 , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 31.2 , 3 , 18.5 , 1 , 24.4 , 2 , 8.9 , - , 9.6 , - , 6 , - , 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;", 29.5 , 4 , 28.5 , 3 , 16.9 , 2 , 10.1 , 1 , 8.6 , 1 , 11 , - , 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 ...

, 19.1 , 1 , 14.3 , 1 , 15.8 , 1 , style="background:red; color:white;", 41.2 , 2 , 3.3 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 28.4 , 3 , 22.3 , 2 , 20.5 , 2 , 15.4 , 2 , 6.1 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Guarda Guarda may refer to: * Guarda, Portugal, city in Portugal * Guarda District, the district containing that city * Roman Catholic Diocese of Guarda, Portugal, the diocese containing that city * Guarda, Switzerland, municipality in Grisons, Switzerlan ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 33.6 , 2 , 23.3 , 2 , 10.9 , - , 5.2 , - , 19.5 , 1 , 5 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 38.6 , 5 , 19.6 , 2 , 15.3 , 2 , 7.9 , 1 , 12.2 , 1 , 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;", 25.6 , 15 , 19.8 , 12 , 21.3 , 13 , 20.1 , 12 , 8.1 , 4 , 56 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 56.8 , 4 , 13.2 , 1 , 9.7 , - , 3.2 , - , 7.8 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , 20.9 , 1 , 23.7 , 1 , 18.9 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 25.2 , 1 , 4.9 , - , 3 , - , 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;", 29.3 , 12 , 23.6 , 10 , 20.5 , 8 , 12.1 , 5 , 9.8 , 4 , 39 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Santarém Santarém may refer to: Places * Santarém, Pará, Brazil * Santarém District, a district in Portugal * Santarém, Portugal, Capital of the Ribatejo province * Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarém, Portugal Other * Santarém cheese, a Portuguese g ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 27.8 , 4 , 18.6 , 2 , 23.8 , 3 , 16.4 , 2 , 7.7 , 1 , 12 , - , 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 ...

, 15.4 , 3 , 16.5 , 3 , 20.4 , 4 , style="background:red; color:white;", 38.2 , 7 , 3.8 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 33.5 , 3 , 18.4 , 1 , 16.2 , 1 , 8.2 , - , 16.6 , 1 , 6 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 42.2 , 3 , 23.0 , 2 , 8.6 , - , 5.9 , - , 12.5 , 1 , 6 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 37.7 , 5 , 20.0 , 2 , 10.9 , 1 , 5.0 , - , 19.9 , 2 , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 24.3 , 1 , 24.2 , 1 , 7.1 , - , 18.8 , - , 17.3 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 40.5 , 1 , 7.8 , - , 3.3 , - , 2.6 , - , 37.9 , 1 , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 29.9 , 88 , 20.8 , 57 , 17.9 , 45 , 15.5 , 38 , 10.0 , 22 , 250 , - , colspan=12 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:1985 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg, Winner and seats by constituency. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 1985 (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

In early 1987, a trip of a Portuguese parliamentary delegation to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

created a diplomatic issue as the delegation also traveled to

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, a territory that wasn't recognized by the Portuguese State as a Soviet controlled territory. Because of this incident, Opposition parties accused Cavaco Silva of disallowing Parliament and, shortly after, the Democratic Renewal Party proposed a motion of no confidence against the Government, and the party's leader,

, communicated to

their intentions. At first, the

Socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

weren't supportive of the PRD's motion, but, last minute negotiations led the PS to also support the motion. On 3 April 1987, the motion passes by a 134 to 108 vote and the government falls: Mário Soares was in an official trip to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

when he was informed, which unpleased the President, and he then returned to Lisbon to meet with parties. The PS, PRD and PCP proposed an alternative government to the PSD minority, but Soares rejected and called a snap general election for 19 July 1987, which resulted in a landslide PSD majority government.

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portuguese legislative election, 1985

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

October 1985 in Europe