An election of

MEPs A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

representing

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

for the 2004-2009 term of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

was held on 13 June 2004. It was part of the wider 2004 European election. The Socialist Party (PS) was the big winner of the elections, achieving their best result in a European election ever. The party won 44.5 percent of the votes, an increase of 1.5 percentage points, and held on to the 12 seats won in 1999. However the Socialist victory, and the campaign overall, was overshadowed by the sudden death of the PS top candidate,

António Sousa Franco 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 ...

. Sousa Franco died of a heart attack while campaigning in

Matosinhos Matosinhos () is a City#Portugal, city and a Concelho, municipality in the district of Porto District, Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities o ...

, just four days before election day.

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

, number 2 on the list, became the Socialists' top candidate after Sousa Franco's death. The Social Democrats (PSD) and the People's Party (CDS–PP) contested the election in a coalition called "Forward Portugal" (FP). The coalition had a very weak performance, winning just 33 percent of the votes, a big drop compared with the combined total of 39 percent the PSD+CDS had in 1999. The PSD lost two seats, while CDS–PP held on to their two seats. The Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) dropped one point and fell below 10 percent of the votes for the first time. CDU was still able to hold on to the two seats they had won in 1999. The Left Bloc (BE) gained a seat for the EU parliament for the first time, and saw its share of vote increase to almost 5 percent, an increase of more than 3 percentage points compared with 1999. Turnout dropped compared with 1999, with 38.6 percent of voters casting a ballot.

Electoral system

The voting method used for the election of European members of parliament, is proportional representation using the d'Hondt method, which is known to benefit the largest parties slightly. In the 2004 EU elections, Portugal had 24 seats to be filled. Deputies are elected in a single constituency, corresponding to the entire national territory.

Parties and candidates

The major parties that partook in the election, and their EP list leaders, were: * Left Bloc (BE), Miguel Portas * Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU),

Ilda Figueiredo Maria Ilda da Costa Figueiredo (born 30 October 1948) is a Portugal, Portuguese politician and a former Member of the European Parliament for the Portuguese Communist Party, part of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left European Parliament p ...

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 th ...

(PS),

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 ...

(PSD)/ People's Party (CDS–PP) '' Força Portugal'', João de Deus Pinheiro

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

One last debate between the four main candidates was expected to be held on RTP on 10 June, but it was cancelled after the sudden death of the PS lead candidate

on 9 June. Parties also cut short their campaigns.

Opinion polling

National summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=10, Portugal MEPS 2004

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" colspan=2 , National party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , European
party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Main candidate ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , +/– ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , +/– , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" ,

(PS) , style="text-align:left;" , PES , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 1,516,001 , 44.52 , 1.45 ! 12 , 0 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color: #00aaaa" width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Forward Portugal (FP)
•

(PSD)
• People's Party (CDS–PP) , style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" , EPP , style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" , João de Deus Pinheiro , style="vertical-align:top;" , 1,132,769 , style="vertical-align:top;" , 33.27 , style="vertical-align:top;" , The Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Party (CDS–PP) contested separately the 1999 election. ! 9
7
2 ,
2
0 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Democratic Unitarian Coalition (CDU)
• Communist Party (PCP)
• Ecologist Party (PEV) , style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" ,

GUE/NGL The Left in the European Parliament (The Left) is a left-wing political group of the European Parliament established in 1995. Prior to January 2021 it was named the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (, GUE/NGL). The group is mainly compose ...

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

, style="vertical-align:top;" , 309,401 , style="vertical-align:top;" , 9.09 , style="vertical-align:top;" , 1.23 ! 2
2
0 ,
0
0 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Left Bloc (BE) , style="text-align:left;" , EACL , style="text-align:left;" , Miguel Portas , 167,313 , 4.91 , 3.12 ! 1 , 1 , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Workers' Communist Party (PCTP/MRPP) , style="text-align:left;" , None , style="text-align:left;" ,

António Garcia Pereira António Pestana Garcia Pereira (born 14 November 1952) is a Portuguese lawyer, university professor, and politician. Until 2015, he was the best-known member of the Marxist–Leninist PCTP/MRPP - Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organiz ...

, 36,294 , 1.07 , 0.19 ! 0 , 0 , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left", New Democracy Party (PND) , align="left", None , align="left", Manuel Monteiro , 33,833 , 0.99 , ''new'' ! 0 , ''new'' , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left", People's Monarchist Party (PPM) , align="left", ECPM , align="left", Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira , 15,454 , 0.45 , 0.02 ! 0 , 0 , - align="right" , style="background-color: yellow" width=5px, , align="left", Movement for the Sick (MD) , align="left", None , align="left", Vitorino Brandão , 13,840 , 0.41 , ''new'' ! 0 , ''new'' , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left", Earth Party (MPT) , align="left", ALDE , align="left", Luís Filipe Marques , 13,671 , 0.40 , 0.00 ! 0 , 0 , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left",

Humanist Party The Humanist International (also known as the International Humanist Party) is a consortium of political parties adhering to universal humanism founded in 1952. The five basic principles of Humanist International are: # The value of human li ...

(PH) , align="left", None , align="left", - , 13,272 , 0.39 , ''new'' ! 0 , ''new'' , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left",

National Renovator Party Rise Up (, E), originally the National Renewal Party (, PNR) was a Portuguese far-right nationalist political party. Its motto is ''Nation and Work'' () and one of its goals consisted in the appreciation of a Portuguese nationalist spirit. The ...

(P.N.R.) , align="left", None , align="left", Paulo Rodrigues , 8,405 , 0.25 , ''new'' ! 0 , ''new'' , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left", Democratic Party of the Atlantic (PDA) , align="left", None , align="left", José Soares , 5,588 , 0.16 , 0.01 ! 0 , 0 , - align="right" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , align="left", Workers Party of Socialist Unity (POUS) , align="left", None , align="left", Carmelinda Pereira , 4,275 , 0.13 , 0.03 ! 0 , 0 , - align="right" , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Valid votes , 3,270,116 , 96.04 , colspan="3" rowspan="2" , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Blank and invalid votes , 134,666 , 3.96 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Totals , 3,404,782 , 100.00 , — ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 24 , 1 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="4" , Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout , 8,821,456 , 38.60 , 1.33 , colspan="2", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="11" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições
, -

Distribution by European group

Maps

File:Pt euelection 2005.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, municip ...

. (

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 ...

and

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 ...

not shown) Europeias 2004.png, Strongest party 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' ...

. Pink: PS; Darkblue: PSD-CDS; Red: CDU

Notes

References

External links

Results according to the Portuguese Electoral Commission of the 13 June 2004 election of the 24 delegates from Portugal to the European Parliament