The 2019 Portuguese legislative election was held on 6 October 2019. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic were contested. In a campaign dominated by the Tancos airbase robbery"Há um antes e um depois da acusação de Tancos na campanha "
'' Público'', 26 September 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020. (in which former Defense Minister Azeredo Lopes (2015–2018) was accused of trying to cover-up the finding of the stolen weapons in the robbery), but also with the good economic situation in Portugal, 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 th ...

(PS) won the elections with 36 percent of the votes and 108 seats, a gain of 22 compared with 2015. The PS won the big districts of Porto and Lisbon, although Porto was closer than expected, and was able to gain districts from the PSD, like Aveiro and Viana do Castelo, by razor thin margins. The PS won the city of Lisbon, however with a smaller share of the vote compared with 2015, 33 vs 35 percent, and, surprisingly lost the city of Porto to the PSD. 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 Form ...

(PSD) obtained 28 percent of the votes and won 79 seats. The party lost 10 seats compared with 2015, and, in terms of share of vote, it was the worst result since 1983, however in terms of seats, it was only the worst result since 2005, when the party won 75 seats. The PSD was able to hold on to their bastions of Viseu, Vila Real, Bragança, Leiria and Madeira. On election night, PSD leader Rui Rio classified the results as "not a disaster" and left the door open to continue as party leader. However, in the aftermath of the election, several members of the party announced their intention to challenge Rio's leadership. The Left Bloc (BE) achieved a similar result to 2015. The party won almost 10 percent of the votes and held the 19 seats elected in 2015. On election night, Catarina Martins said she was open to new negotiations with PS. The

Unitary Democratic Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition (, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party () and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates ...

, (CDU), PCP-PEV coalition, suffered heavy losses, with 6.3 percent of the votes and 12 seats, and Jerónimo de Sousa, PCP secretary-general, said on election night that written agreements with PS were off the table. CDS – People's Party got just 4.2 percent of the votes, and got a parliamentary caucus reduced to just 5 seats, the lowest since 1991 and when the party was called the "taxi party", down from 18 in the 2015 election. Assunção Cristas, CDS leader, resigned on election night, called for a snap party congress and announced she would not run for reelection. People-Animals-Nature (PAN) saw a big increase in its share of the vote, winning 3.3% and 4 seats from Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal. This election was marked by the entry of three new parties in Parliament. The right-wing/far-right party CHEGA (CH) was one of the big surprises on election night by electing an MP from Lisbon. It was the first time since the return to democracy that a right-wing/far-right party gained representation in Parliament. LIVRE and Liberal Initiative also elected one MP for Lisbon. Former Prime Minister and PSD leader Pedro Santana Lopes' new party,

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

, failed to win a single seat and polled below 1 percent of the votes. The turnout in this election was the lowest ever in a general election in Portugal, with just 48.6 percent of registered voters casting a ballot. In Portugal alone, 54.5 percent of voters cast a ballot, a drop compared with the 57 percent in the 2015 election.

Background

2015 Government formation

After the

2015 elections Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burundian presidential election 21 July 2015 * 2015-16 Central African gene ...

, President

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 ...

asked incumbent Prime Minister

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the List of prime ministers of Portugal, 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 201 ...

to form a minority government, as the Portugal Ahead coalition won the most votes and seats in the election. Passos Coelho second government was sworn in on 30 October 2015. However, during this period, the

, the Left Bloc and the Communist Party reached a historic agreement in order to bring down the Passos Coelho minority government and support a Socialist minority government led by

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 ...

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, ...

, CDS–PP leader, labeled the agreement as the ''Geringonça'' (), which became the name the left-wing agreement would be known for. On 10 November 2015, the left-wing parties proposed a vote of rejection to the Portugal Ahead's government program, which was approved by a 123 to 107 vote, thus bringing down the government. On 26 November 2015, António Costa was sworn in 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 ...

. Costa's term was also marred by the 2017 deadly wildfires, in June and in October, plus the Tancos arms theft scandal, which would have an impact during the 2019 election campaign.

Leadership changes and challenges

CDS – People's Party

Following the collapse of the PàF minority government and the subsequent nomination of

, with the support of the leftwing parties, CDS–PP leader

announced, in December 2015, he was leaving the party's leadership. A new party congress was called to elect a new leader. There were two candidates in the ballot: Assunção Cristas, supported by Portas, and Miguel Mattos Chaves, critical of Portas leadership. Cristas 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", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Assunção Cristas , align=right , 877 , align=right , 98.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Miguel Mattos Chaves , align=right , 11 , align=right , 1.2 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 888 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results

Social Democratic Party

After a disappointing result in the 2017 local elections, in which the PSD won just 30 percent of the votes and 98 mayoral races against the 38 percent of the PS and its 160 elected mayors,

announced he would not run for a 5th term as PSD leader. After that, Rui Rio, former mayor of Porto (2002–2013), announced he was running for the leadership. Shortly after, Pedro Santana Lopes, former mayor of Lisbon (2002–2004; 2005) and Prime Minister (2004–2005), announced he was also running for the leadership of the party. Election day was scheduled to January 13, 2018. After a long campaign, Rui Rio was elected with 54.15 percent of the votes, against the 45.85 percent of Santana Lopes. Turnout was 60.3 percent. 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 , Rui Rio , align=right , 22,728 , align=right , 54.2 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Pedro Santana Lopes , align=right , 19,244 , align=right , 45.8 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 683 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 42,655 , align=right , 60.34 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Official results
Rui Rio was officially confirmed as party leader in the PSD congress, in Lisbon, between 16 and 18 February 2018. Just seven months after this leadership election, in early July 2018, Pedro Santana Lopes announced he was leaving the Social Democratic Party and would form his own party. A few weeks later he announced the creation of a new party, the

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 (, ), is the head of state and highest office of Portugal. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister ...

but is not called at the request of the

; however, the President must listen to all of the parties represented in Parliament and the election day must be announced at least 60 days before the election. If an election is called during an ongoing 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, take place no later than 13 October 2019. After meeting with all parties, in December 2018,

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic who is the president of Portugal since 2016. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, though he suspended his party membership for the ...

announced that he would call a general election for 6 October 2019.

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 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 2015 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Early voting

Voters were also able to vote early, which would happen one week before election day, on 29 September 2019. Voters had to register in order to be eligible to cast an early ballot. Between 22 and 26 September, 56,287 voters requested to vote early. On 29 September, 50,638 voters (90.0 percent of voters that requested) cast an early ballot.

Parties

Parliamentary factions

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 13th legislature (2015–2019) and that also contested the elections:

Seat changes

* On 7 December 2018,

MP Paulo Trigo Pereira announced his departure from the Socialists' caucus, citing policy differences between him and the caucus leadership. He remained in Parliament as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, continuing to support the government.

Non represented parties

The table below lists smaller parties not represented in the Assembly of the Republic that ran in the elections:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

With parties represented in Parliament

With parties not represented in Parliament

A debate between parties not represented in Parliament was also broadcast 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 ...

and RTP3.

Opinion polling

Voter turnout

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas.

Results

The centre-left Socialist Party (PS) of incumbent Prime Minister Costa obtained the largest share of the vote, and the most seats. Costa said he would look to continue the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Left Bloc and the Unitary Democratic Coalition. The centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) got 27.8 percent of the vote, its worst result since 1983. Portugal's much-vaunted immunity to Europe's far-right wave was interrupted by the election of a debut representative from the nationalist CHEGA party, which scored 1.3 percent overall, with the party's leader stating “this is an historic occasion, it will be the first time in 45 years that a party with these characteristics enters the assembly.”

National summary

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , PSD !colspan=2 , BE !colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 , CDS–PP !colspan=2 , PAN !colspan=2 , CH !colspan=2 , IL !colspan=2 , L , - , 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;", 40.1 , 3 , 30.2 , 2 , 8.0 , - , 2.5 , - , 4.8 , - , 2.7 , - , 0.9 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 34.3 , 7 , 33.6 , 6 , 10.0 , 2 , 3.1 , - , 5.7 , 1 , 3.0 , - , 0.7 , - , 1.0 , - , 0.7 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , style="background:; color:white;", 40.7 , 2 , 13.3 , - , 9.1 , - , 22.8 , 1 , 2.3 , - , 2.0 , - , 2.0 , - , 0.4 , - , 0.6 , - , 3 , - , 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;", 36.4 , 8 , 34.1 , 8 , 8.9 , 2 , 4.0 , - , 4.1 , 1 , 2.6 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.8 , - , 0.7 , - , 19 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , 36.5 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 40.8 , 2 , 6.0 , - , 2.1 , - , 4.5 , - , 1.3 , - , 0.8 , - , 0.4 , - , 0.3 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 40.9 , 3 , 26.3 , 1 , 11.1 , - , 4.8 , - , 3.7 , - , 2.4 , - , 1.3 , - , 0.6 , - , 0.9 , - , 4 , - , 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;", 39.0 , 5 , 26.6 , 3 , 11.2 , 1 , 5.6 , - , 3.5 , - , 2.6 , - , 0.9 , - , 0.8 , - , 0.9 , - , 9 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 38.3 , 2 , 17.5 , - , 9.0 , - , 18.9 , 1 , 3.4 , - , 2.0 , - , 2.2 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.7 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 36.8 , 5 , 22.3 , 3 , 12.3 , 1 , 7.1 , - , 3.8 , - , 4.8 , - , 2.1 , - , 0.8 , - , 1.0 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:; color:white;", 37.6 , 2 , 34.3 , 1 , 7.8 , - , 3.0 , - , 5.0 , - , 1.6 , - , 1.5 , - , 0.6 , - , 0.5 , - , 3 , - , 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;", 33.5 , 5 , 9.4 , 1 , 4.3 , - , 5.3 , - , 2.9 , - , 1.5 , - , 0.9 , - , 0.9 , - , 10 , - , 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;", 36.7 , 20 , 22.6 , 12 , 9.7 , 5 , 7.8 , 4 , 4.4 , 2 , 4.4 , 2 , 2.0 , 1 , 2.5 , 1 , 2.1 , 1 , 48 , - , 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 ...

, 33.4 , 3 , style="background:; color:white;", 37.1 , 3 , 5.2 , - , 2.1 , - , 6.1 , - , 1.8 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.4 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 44.7 , 2 , 20.1 , - , 8.1 , - , 10.6 , - , 3.8 , - , 1.7 , - , 2.7 , - , 0.5 , - , 0.6 , - , 2 , - , 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;", 36.7 , 17 , 31.2 , 15 , 10.1 , 4 , 4.8 , 2 , 3.3 , 1 , 3.5 , 1 , 0.6 , - , 1.5 , - , 1.0 , - , 40 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 37.1 , 4 , 25.2 , 3 , 10.2 , 1 , 7.6 , 1 , 4.7 , - , 2.6 , - , 2.0 , - , 0.8 , - , 0.9 , - , 9 , - , 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;", 38.6 , 9 , 14.4 , 3 , 12.1 , 2 , 15.8 , 3 , 3.0 , - , 4.4 , 1 , 1.9 , - , 1.1 , - , 1.2 , - , 18 , - , 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;", 34.8 , 3 , 33.8 , 3 , 8.5 , - , 4.0 , - , 6.2 , - , 2.4 , - , 0.7 , - , 0.6 , - , 0.6 , - , 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 ...

, 37.2 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 39.0 , 3 , 6.1 , - , 2.5 , - , 4.5 , - , 1.7 , - , 0.8 , - , 0.4 , - , 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 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 ...

, 35.4 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 36.2 , 4 , 7.9 , - , 2.3 , - , 5.9 , - , 2.1 , - , 1.0 , - , 0.6 , - , 0.5 , - , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 29.1 , 1 , 18.8 , 1 , 5.7 , - , 2.5 , - , 3.0 , - , 4.9 , - , 0.9 , - , 0.8 , - , 1.1 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , 20.2 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 33.4 , 1 , 3.5 , - , 1.0 , - , 4.7 , - , 4.3 , - , 0.9 , - , 2.5 , - , 0.7 , - , 2 , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 36.3 , 108 , 27.8 , 79 , 9.5 , 19 , 6.3 , 12 , 4.2 , 5 , 3.3 , 4 , 1.3 , 1 , 1.3 , 1 , 1.1 , 1 , 230 , - , colspan=20 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:2019 Portuguese legislative election - Detailed Results.svg, Full results by electoral district. File:2019 Portuguese legislative election - Results.svg, Strongest party by electoral district. File:2019 Portuguese legislative election - Results by Municipality.svg, 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' ...

. File:2019 Portuguese legislative election - Left Results.svg, Vote strength for left-wing parties ( BE, CDU,

LIVRE Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...

) by electoral district. File:2019 Portuguese legislative election - Faction Results.svg, Strongest political faction by electoral district. Left: PS, BE, CDU; Right: PSD, CDS-PP.

Electorate

Aftermath

Budget rejection and fall of the government

After the October 2019 elections, the PS decided to not renew the "Geringonça" (''Contraption'') deal with the Left Bloc and the Communist Party and opted to govern by making deals with both left and/or right parties in the opposition. After this, budgets and other policies were discussed with all opposition parties, but political instability grew, even during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In October 2021, BE and PCP announced that they would vote against the government's proposed 2022 budget and

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 ...

warned that if there was no budget, he would dissolve Parliament and call a snap election. On 27 October 2021, Parliament rejected the budget by a 117 to 108 vote, and a snap general election was called for 30 January 2022.

Notes

References

External links

Popstar Poll Tracker

Marktest Opinion Poll Tracker

Official results site, Portuguese Justice Ministry

Portuguese Electoral Commission

ERC - Official publication of polls

{{Portuguese elections Portuguese Legislative elections in Portugal October 2019 in Portugal