The 2020 Azorean regional election was held on 25 October 2020, to determine the composition of the

Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores The Legislative Assembly of the Azores () is the Autonomous regions of Portugal, regional assembly/legislature of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. History The regional legislative assembly, since it was first instituted, has mainta ...

. All 57 members of the assembly were up for election. 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) again won the most votes with 39 percent, but lost their majority against all predictions. The party won 25 seats, 5 seats fewer than in 2016 and 4 seats short of a majority. The Socialists' main opponent, 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), made significant gains by winning almost 34 percent of the votes and 21 seats, two more than in 2016. The

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

(CDS-PP) was able to hold on to its status as the third biggest party in the region but lost almost 2 percent of the votes and one member on the regional parliament. Overall, CDS–PP got 5.5 percent of the votes and 3 seats. The Left Bloc (BE) was also able to hold on to their 2016 score, holding their 2 seats and winning a similar share of vote to that received in 2016, with 3.8 percent. 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) was wiped out from the regional parliament by losing their sole member, elected in 2016, and polling just 1.7 percent of the votes. The big surprise in the elections was the arrival of new parties, from left to right, in the Azores regional parliament. CHEGA (CH) polled at 5 percent of the votes and was able to elect 2 members to the regional parliament.

People-Animals-Nature People-Animals-Nature (, PAN) is an environmentalist, animal rights, and animal welfare-focused political party in Portugal, which was founded in 2009. In the 2011 Madeiran regional election, it had 2.13% of the votes, with a total of 3,135 vo ...

(PAN) also elected one MP as did the

Liberal Initiative The Liberal Initiative (, , IL) is a liberal political party in Portugal. Founded in 2017, it is currently led by Miguel Rangel, who is the interim leader since the resignation of Rui Rocha in May 2025. The party has been described as being ...

(IL). The new composition of the regional assembly gave the rightwing parties a majority over the left, with 29 against 28. On election night, PSD leader

José Manuel Bolieiro José Manuel Cabral Dias Bolieiro (born 23 June 1965) is a Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) politician, serving as the President of the Regional Government of the Azores since the 2020 election. As holder of that office, he is also a me ...

said the night was a historic one for democracy and the autonomous region. PS leader

Vasco Cordeiro Vasco Ilídio Alves Cordeiro (born 28 March 1973) is a Portuguese Socialist Party politician, who served as President of the Regional Government of the Azores from 2012, following his party's victory in the 2012 Azores regional election, until ...

said the PS won the elections and should have a chance to form a government but acknowledged that the picture was challenging. In the days after the election, both PS and PSD started talks with parties to see if deals were possible. On 2 November, PSD, CDS–PP and PPM announced they had reached an agreement to form a government.PSD, CDS e PPM alcançam proposta de governação nos Açores
'' RTP'', 2 November 2020. Retrieved 31 2 November 2020. Shortly afterwards, Carlos Furtardo, the leader of CHEGA also announced the party would support a PSD/CDS–PP/PPM government in the regional parliament. Despite this announcement, there were divisions in CHEGA as the party's national leader,

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese far-right politician, former sports pundit and trainee priest, and founder of the right-wing populist political party Chega. He acts as the leader of the opposition since Cheg ...

, said no deal had been made with the Social Democrats and that the order was to not support the PSD led coalition. However, a few days later, on 6 November, CHEGA and PSD reached an agreement after CHEGA dropped several of their demands. On the following day, 7 November, IL announced it had reached an agreement with PSD for parliamentary support. Thus the government would be formed by a coalition of PSD, CDS-PP and PPM (26 MPs) with parliamentary support of CHEGA (2) and IL (1), totalizing a majority of 29 out of 57 seats in the parliament. On that same day, the Representative of the Republic in the Azores, Pedro Catarino, after hearing all parties represented in the regional parliament, appointed

as President of the Regional Government and asked him to form a government. On 24 November, José Manuel Bolieiro and his cabinet were sworn in to office. The turnout in these elections increased compared to the previous one, with 45.4 percent of voters casting a ballot, compared with the record-low 40.9 percent in the 2016 elections.

Background

Leadership changes and challenges

Social Democratic Party

After the defeat of the PSD in the 2016 regional election, then party leader

Duarte Freitas Duarte Nuno D'Ávila Martins de Freitas (born 10 August 1966 in São Roque do Pico, Azores) is a Portugal, Portuguese politician and former member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social Democratic Party&nd ...

remained in office until resigning in July 2018, for personal reasons. He called a leadership ballot for 29 September 2018. Two candidates were on the ballot: Incumbent mayor of

Ribeira Grande Ribeira Grande may refer to the following places: Cape Verde * Ribeira Grande (stream), a stream on the island of Santo Antão * Ribeira Grande, Cape Verde, a town on the island of Santo Antão * Ribeira Grande, Cape Verde (municipality), a municip ...

Alexandre Gaudêncio, and Pedro Nascimento Cabral. Gaudêncio was elected with 61 percent of the votes. , - 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 , Alexandre Gaudêncio , align=right , 1,716 , align=right , 60.9 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Pedro Nascimento Cabral , align=right , 1,058 , align=right , 37.5 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 46 , align=right , 1.6 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 2,820 , align=right , 53.80 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source: One year later, in October 2019, Gaudêncio announced his resignation, in the aftermath of a

Judiciary Police The judicial police, judiciary police, or justice police are (depending on both country and legal system) either a branch, separate police agency or type of duty performed by law enforcement structures in a country. The term judiciary police is mo ...

investigation into suspected irregularities in public contracts and urban development while as mayor of

. A leadership ballot was called for 14 December 2019 and only one candidate presented himself:

, by then the incumbent mayor of

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 ...

. Boleiro was elected with almost 99 percent of the votes. , - 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 ,

, align=right , 1,526 , align=right , 98.5 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 24 , align=right , 1.5 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 1,550 , align=right , – , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

Electoral system

The 57 members of the Azores regional parliament are elected through a proportional system in which the 9 islands elect a number of MPs proportional to the number of registered voters. MPs are allocated by using 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 ...

. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency. Current distribution of MPs by constituency:

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the

Legislative Assembly of the Azores The Legislative Assembly of the Azores () is the regional assembly/legislature of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. History The regional legislative assembly, since it was first instituted, has maintained its seat in the city of Ho ...

in the term between 2016 and 2020.

Parties running in the election

14 lists were on the ballot for the 2020 Azorean regional election, 13 parties and one coalition only in Corvo. The parties that contested the election and their lead candidates, were: (alphabetically ordered) *

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 ...

(A), Paulo Silva * Left Bloc (BE), António Lima *

(CDU), João Corvelo *

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

(CDS-PP),

Artur Lima Artur Manuel Leal da Lima (born 23 May 1963) is a dentist and politician, the leader of the Azorean CDS-PP. Career Lima obtained a degree in dental medicine from the University of Porto and a post-graduate degree in Medical Law from the Unive ...

* CHEGA (CH), Carlos Furtado *

(IL), Nuno Barata *

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 ...

(L), José Manuel Azevedo *

Earth Party The Earth Party (, ), previously called The Earth Party Movement (, abbreviated MPT, hence called ''MPT – Partido da Terra''), is a green-conservative political party in Portugal, founded on 12 August 1993. Its main political priorities are ...

(MPT), Pedro Soares Pimenta *

(PAN), Pedro Neves *

Portuguese Workers' Communist Party The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat (, PCTP/MRPP) is a Maoist political party in Portugal. History and overview The party was founded in 1970 as the (MRPP), led by Arnaldo de Matos. ...

(PCTP/MRPP), José Afonso Loures *

(PSD),

* People's Monarchist Party (PPM),

Paulo Estêvão Paulo Jorge Abraços Estêvão (born 27 July 1968) is a Portuguese politician who is currently serving as the Secretary of Parliamentary Affairs and Communities of the Azores since 2024. He has also been a member of the Legislative Assembly of the ...

(PS),

* People's Monarchist Party/

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

''More Corvo'' (PPM/CDS-PP),

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polls

Voter turnout

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.

Results

Regional summary

, - , colspan=10, Portugal Azores Parliament 2020

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left,

Parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

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

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;", 2020 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , 40,703, , 39.14, , 7.3, , 30, , 25, , 5, , 43.86, , 8.7 , - , , 35,094, , 33.74, , 2.8, , 19, , 21, , 2, , 36.84, , 3.5 , - , , 5,739, , 5.52, , 1.7, , 4, , 3, , 1, , 5.26, , 1.7 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#202056 align="center" , , align=left, CHEGA , 5,262, , 5.06, , , , , , 2, , , , 3.51, , , - , , 3,962, , 3.81, , 0.1, , 2, , 2, , 0, , 3.51, , 0.0 , - , , 2,415, , 2.32, , 1.4, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 1.75, , 1.7 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#00ADEF align="center" , , align=left,

, 2,012, , 1.93, , , , , , 1, , , , 1.75, , , - , , 2,005, , 1.93, , 0.4, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 1.75, , 1.7 , - , , 1,741, , 1.67, , 0.9, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0.00, , 1.7 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#6AD1E3 align="center" , , align=left,

, 422, , 0.41, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 362, , 0.35, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 157, , 0.15, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 144, , 0.14, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align=left, More Corvo ( PPM/ CDS–PP) , 115, , 0.11, , 0.0, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 1.75, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100,133 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 96.28 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 1.6 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 57 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 57 , 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 , 2,618, , 2.52, , 0.4, , colspan=5 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 1,247, , 1.20, , 1.2 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 103,998 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 229,002, , 45.41, , 4.6 , - , colspan=10 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Results 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 , CDS-PP !colspan=2 , CH !colspan=2 , BE !colspan=2 , PPM !colspan=2 , IL !colspan=2 , PAN !colspan=2 , PPM/
CDS-PP , - , style="text-align:left;" , Corvo , 35.2 , 1 , 22.3 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , style="background:; color:white;", 40.1 , 1 , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faial , 30.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 41.0 , 2 , 6.0 , - , 3.0 , - , 3.6 , - , 2.6 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 30.0 , 1 , 28.3 , 1 , 11.7 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3.9 , - , 18.2 , 1 , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.4 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Graciosa Graciosa Island () (literally "graceful" or "enchanting" in Portuguese), also referred to as the ''White Island'', is a volcanic island in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the northernmost of the Central Group of islands in the Azores archipelago. The o ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 47.4 , 2 , 41.6 , 1 , 1.3 , - , 1.5 , - , 1.1 , - , 3.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Pico Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribe ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 44.8 , 2 , 36.5 , 2 , 4.5 , - , 3.6 , - , 1.9 , - , 0.6 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santa Maria , style="background:; color:white;", 44.0 , 2 , 23.3 , 1 , 1.2 , - , 1.4 , - , 11.6 , - , 12.6 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , São Jorge , style="background:; color:white;", 32.0 , 1 , 18.4 , 1 , 31.6 , 1 , 9.1 , - , 1.9 , - , 1.5 , - , 2.6 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , São Miguel , style="background:; color:white;", 39.0 , 9 , 36.6 , 9 , 1.6 , - , 5.6 , 1 , 4.3 , 1 , 2.2 , - , 2.5 , - , 2.6 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 20 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Terceira Terceira () is a volcanic island in the Azores archipelago, about a third of the way across the North Atlantic Ocean at a similar latitude to Portugal's capital Lisbon, with the island group forming an insular part of Portugal. It is one of the ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 41.3 , 5 , 28.5 , 4 , 9.5 , 1 , 5.4 , - , 3.2 , - , 0.8 , - , 2.9 , - , 1.5 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Compensation , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , - , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , - , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , 1 , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , 1 , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , 1 , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , - , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , 1 , style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA", , 1 , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 5 , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 39.1 , 25 , 33.7 , 21 , 5.5 , 3 , 5.1 , 2 , 3.8 , 2 , 2.3 , 1 , 1.9 , 1 , 1.9 , 1 , 0.1 , 1 , 57 , - , colspan=20 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Azores Government

Maps

File:Eleições Legislativas Açores 2020 Ilhas.svg, Most voted party by island. File:Eleições Legislativas Açores 2020 Concelhos.svg, Most voted 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' ...

in the Azores.

Aftermath

Government approval

With the loss of its majority, the PS tried to reach a deal with other parties but failed, as the PSD reached a deal for a minority coalition government with

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

(CDS-PP) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM), plus ensured the outside support of Chega and the

. On 11 December 2020, the regional parliament approved José Manuel Boleiro's minority government, the first non-socialist Azorean regional government in 24 years:

Fall of the government

In March 2023, the

removed its support from the PSD/CDS/PPM minority coalition, citing deep disagreements on policy and tensions between the minor parties within the coalition. On the budget vote for 2024, in late November 2023, the coalition lost the support of their outside supporters,

and Chega, and the budget fell. Bolieiro tried to present a second budget, but after meeting with

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 ...

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 ...

, he dropped the idea and asked for early elections. Shortly after, early elections were called for 4 February 2024.

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de EleiçõesLegislative Assembly of Azores - Official website
{{Azorean elections Azorean regional election Regional elections in the Azores Local and regional elections in Portugal