The 1995 Portuguese legislative election took place on 1 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The incumbent prime minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, decided not to run for a fourth consecutive term and the Social Democratic Party, choose Fernando Nogueira, one of Cavaco Silva's deputies, as leader and candidate for prime minister in a highly contested and bitter party congress in February 1995. But, the PSD was weakened by the end of the 10-year cycle of governments led by Cavaco Silva, amid scandals and the 1994 25 April bridge riots that shocked the country. During the campaign, Cavaco Silva toyed with the idea of running for the 1996 Presidential elections, which he ultimately did. The PS easily won the elections with 44 percent of the votes, against the 34 percent of the PSD, achieving their first general election victory since 1983 and after a decade in opposition, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs.

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

, elected as PS leader three years before, became prime minister. The Social Democratic Party suffered a heavy defeat, losing almost 50 seats and 17 percentage points. This election marked the growing bi-polarization of the Portuguese political map. The two minor parties, the People's Party and the Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) achieved only 15 MPs each, and for the first time ever the CDU failed to win a single district. Although turnout, in percentage point, was lower than the previous election in 1991, almost 6 million voters cast a ballot on election day, the highest figure since 1980. Voter turnout stood at 66.3 percent, the lowest until then.

Background

Leadership changes and challenges

The four main parties all changed their leaders during the 1991–1995 legislature.

PS 1992 leadership election

The 1991 general election Socialist defeat, and the scale of it, surprised the party, with

actually saying he "was in shock". Then PS leader, Jorge Sampaio, faced a lot of criticisms about his strategy but, announced he was running for reelection as party leader. He would face

and Álvaro Beleza. A party leadership congress was called for February 1992, but, during the days prior to the start of the congress, Sampaio withdrew from the race and Guterres was easily elected as party leader:"Perdeu PS para Guterres e Beleza ficou com votos do líder no congresso"
''Jornal de Notícias'', 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022. 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", % , - , , align=left ,

, align=center , , align=right , 88.0 , - , , align=left , Álvaro Beleza , align=right , , align=right , 12.0 , - , , align=left , Jorge Sampaio , colspan="2" align=center , withdrew , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

CDS–PP 1992 leadership election

Then CDS leader, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, resigned from the leadership following the party's poor results in the 1991 general elections. A party congress to elect a new leader was called for late March 1992 and 3 candidates were on the ballot: Manuel Monteiro, Basílio Horta, the party's candidate for the 1991 Presidential election and António Lobo Xavier. Manuel Monteiro was easily elected as leader: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , , align=left , Manuel Monteiro , align=center , WIN , align=right , , - , , align=left , Basílio Horta , align=right , , align=right , , - , , align=left , António Lobo Xavier , align=right , , align=right , , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

PCP 1992 leadership election

The historic

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 ...

leader, Álvaro Cunhal, announced he would step down from the leadership of the party in late 1992. Carlos Carvalhas, the party's deputy leader was chosen as Cunhal's successor and was unanimously elected, but Cunhal remained a powerful figure within the party as a new body, the National Council, was created and Cunhal would lead it. , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=red, , align=left , Carlos Carvalhas , align=center , , align=right , 100.0 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

PSD 1995 leadership election

After serving almost 10 years as

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 ...

, there were doubts if Cavaco Silva would run for another term, thus, creating a big "taboo" in Portuguese politics. Cavaco promised a decision during the spring of 1995, but in January 1995, he announced he would not run for another term as prime minister and PSD leader. This led the PSD to call a congress to elect a new leader. The congress become iconic for how tense and stormy it was, with strong accusations between several party members. Three candidates announced a run for the leadership: Fernando Nogueira, former defense minister, José Manuel Durão Barroso, foreign affairs minister, and Pedro Santana Lopes, former culture secretary. Santana Lopes withdrew before the ballot, and Fernando Nogueira narrowly defeated Durão Barroso by just 33 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=orange, , align=left , Fernando Nogueira , align=right , 532 , align=right , 51.6 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , José Manuel Durão Barroso , align=right , 499 , align=right , 48.4 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Pedro Santana Lopes , colspan="2" align=center, withdrew , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 1,031 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

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 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. The use of the d'Hondt method 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 1991 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 6th legislature (1991–1995) and that also partook in the election:

Seat changes

* On 9 December 1992, former party leader, founder and MP Diogo Freitas do Amaral, elected in the CDS list for

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 ...

, left the party and became an Independent member following deep disagreements regarding the ideological and political direction of the party led by Manuel Monteiro, elected just a few months earlier."Diogo Freitas do Amaral"
''RTP Arquivo'', Retrieved 12 February 2025.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

The 1995 debates, between PSD leader Fernando Nogueira and PS leader

, were the first general election debates since the 1985 elections.

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 1991 and 1995 for reference. Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Results

National summary

, - , colspan=10, Portugal Parliament 1995

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left, Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center", MPs , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 1991 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 1995 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , 2,583,755, , 43.76, , 14.7, , 72, , 112, , 40, , 48.70, , 17.4 , - , , 2,014,589, , 34.12, , 16.5, , 135, , 88, , 47, , 38.26, , 20.4 , - , , 534,470, , 9.05, , 4.7, , 5, , 15, , 10, , 6.52, , 4.3 , - , , 506,157, , 8.57, , 0.2, , 17, , 15, , 2, , 6.52, , 0.9 , - , , 41,137, , 0.70, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 37,638, , 0.64, , 0.5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align=left, People's Democratic Union , 33,876, , 0.57, , 0.5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px;background:#000080" align="center" , , align=left, National Solidarity , 12,613, , 0.21, , 1.5, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0.00, , 0.4 , - , , 8,279, , 0.14, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 8,235, , 0.14, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , / People's Monarchist , 5,932, , 0.10, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 2,544, , 0.04, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 2,536, , 0.04, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,791,761 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 98.08 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 45,793, , 0.78, , 0.0, , colspan=5 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 67,300, , 1.14, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,904,854 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,906,608, , 66.30, , 1.5 , - , colspan=10 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , PSD !colspan=2 , CDS–PP !colspan=2 , CDU , - , 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 ...

, 37.6 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 47.8 , 3 , 9.4 , - , 1.8 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , 40.2 , 6 , style="background:; color:white;", 41.2 , 6 , 12.6 , 2 , 2.7 , - , 14 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , style="background:; color:white;", 45.8 , 2 , 15.7 , 1 , 3.6 , - , 29.2 , 1 , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Braga , style="background:; color:white;", 42.9 , 8 , 38.2 , 7 , 10.7 , 1 , 4.5 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , 40.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 44.8 , 2 , 9.4 , - , 1.9 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 53.2 , 3 , 32.1 , 2 , 7.2 , - , 5.3 , - , 5 , - , 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;", 49.1 , 6 , 34.5 , 4 , 7.1 , - , 5.1 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Évora , style="background:; color:white;", 42.6 , 2 , 20.2 , 1 , 5.2 , - , 26.9 , 1 , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 49.6 , 5 , 29.2 , 3 , 8.3 , - , 7.8 , - , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:; color:white;", 43.7 , 2 , 39.9 , 2 , 9.9 , - , 2.3 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Leiria , 36.7 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 43.3 , 5 , 11.4 , 1 , 4.5 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="background:; color:white;", 44.3 , 24 , 29.0 , 15 , 9.4 , 5 , 12.0 , 6 , 50 , - , 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 ...

, 32.0 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 46.1 , 3 , 12.9 , - , 1.3 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 50.5 , 2 , 23.4 , 1 , 6.3 , - , 14.0 , - , 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;", 46.7 , 18 , 36.4 , 14 , 7.8 , 3 , 6.0 , 2 , 37 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 45.8 , 5 , 31.0 , 3 , 8.7 , 1 , 9.5 , 1 , 10 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 44.9 , 9 , 18.4 , 3 , 7.2 , 1 , 23.8 , 4 , 17 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Viana do Castelo , 38.8 , 3 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.1 , 3 , 11.3 , - , 4.6 , - , 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 ...

, 40.0 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 46.0 , 3 , 7.8 , - , 1.9 , - , 5 , - , 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 ...

, 38.4 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 44.3 , 4 , 11.5 , 1 , 1.8 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 35.1 , 1 , 33.8 , 1 , 4.4 , - , 6.4 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , 12.8 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 69.3 , 2 , 3.8 , - , 1.2 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 43.8 , 112 , 34.1 , 88 , 9.1 , 15 , 8.6 , 15 , 230 , - , colspan=10 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:1995 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg, Winner and seats by constituency. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 1995 (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' ...

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político