For the third time in the last 5 years, Portuguese citizens will go to the polls to elect their 230 representatives in the Assembly of the Republic: more than 10 million Portuguese are called to cast their vote today, a day of early elections caused by a series of dizzying events that shook Portuguese politics, and that led to the fall of the popular Prime Minister António Costa, of the Socialist Party (PS).

Today’s general elections serve as an epilogue to the period of António Costa’s government: the leader of the Portuguese Social Democrats He came to office in 2015 after a vote of no confidence, and since then the general elections have been brought forward on two occasions.

Two early elections

In 2022, in the middle of his second term, Costa brought forward the elections to overcome a situation of budget blockage suffered by his Government, an executive with a parliamentary minority. Costa came out stronger from this electoral advance, reaping an overwhelming absolute majority of 120 seats – 20.9% of the votes- who predicted four quiet years of government.

However, last November a controversy broke out related to an alleged case of corruption, which directly affected Costa’s chief of staff, Vitor Escária, and other figures close to the orbit of the socialist government. The residence of the prime minister himself was searched by the Portuguese Police, who were investigating alleged irregularities.and favorable treatment by the Portuguese Government towards certain companies in the lithium and hydrogen sector.

Within hours, Costa submitted his resignation while defending his innocence, to avoid harming his party. The call for elections by the president of the country, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was quick to confirm that the Portuguese would have to go to the polls a few months later. The fall of Costa has meant the loss of a reference for European socialism, which now finds its main exponentss in Pedro Sánchez and Olaf Scholtzchancellor of Germany.

The candidates to preside over the Government of Portugal

The party that has governed our neighboring country for the last 9 years changed leadership last December, when Pedro Nuno Santos assumed the general secretary of the party. Although the judge in charge of the case found no evidence of corruption in Costa’s actions, he was also confused during the investigation. with another politician also named António Costathe socialists have opted for a new candidate.

The ‘enfant terrible’ of the Socialist Party

Nuno Santos has a degree in Economics and has been a member of the Socialist Party since he was 14 years old. His political career dates back to 2005, when he joined the National Assembly, and Between 2019 and 2022 he served as Minister of Infrastructure and Housingalthough he had to resign due to a scandal related to the airline TAP Portugal, as the page points out Newtral. Following the line of other social democratic governments, Santos is committed to raising pensions, to redistribution and social justice and to delve into equality policies.

EFE points out that Nuno Santos He is nicknamed ‘enfant terrible’ of the PS, for his incendiary statements at the time of the bank bailout of Portugal: however, the candidate has been moderating his speech during the campaign with the aim of revalidating another socialist government in the country. The last friday, Santos finished his campaign in Almada, an industrial and working-class city located on the other side of the Tagus River, opposite Lisbon.

The favorite: the new leader of the Portuguese center-right

Santos’ main rival in these elections is Luis Montenegro, leader of the conservative party of Portugal, which is called the Social Democratic Party (PSD): after 25 years in this formation, this inarticulate and low-profile politician took advantage of Costa’s fall to present himself as an alternative to socialism. establishing himself as leader of the party at the convention last November.

If Santos represents the harshest facet of Portuguese socialism, Montenegro is the most affable face of a coalition composed to increase the presence of the right in the São Bento Palace: the Democratic Alliance brings together the Social Democratic Party and two other more conservative parties, the Social Democratic Center and the Popular Monarchist Partya force that is committed to reestablishing the monarchy in Portugal.

The extreme right arrives in Portugal

Further to the right, and as the third force in voting intention, the Chega party is located (Basta, in Portuguese), exponent of the populist extreme right in the Portuguese country. Their leader, the former sports commentator André Ventura, He has been making his way into Portuguese politics for several years, despite starting his political career in the Social Democratic Party.

After trying to integrate into the Democratic Alliance, Chega – with an ultraliberal and anti-immigration discourse- expects to obtain its best results since its formation in 2019: the party’s electoral campaign closed it a performance by Quim Barreiroshe “Georgie Dann Portuguese“, who offered support to this group with his popular songs and his accordion.

The Socialist Party has already expressed its intention to support an investiture of Montenegro to avoid a pact between the center-right and this party, which follows in the wake of formations such as Meloni’s Brothers of Italyor the National Group of Marine Le Pen.

Beyond these candidacies, other parties are also presenting themselves, such as the Liberal Initiative – neoliberal in nature -, the Unitary Democratic Coalition – communists and environmentalists -, the Left Bloc -socialists-, People-Animals-Nature -animalists- or Freealso left-wing.

Who is ahead in the polls?

Polls, in general, predict a change in the political cycle in Portugal: several days ago Portuguese public television published the results of a survey commissioned from the Catholic University, which predicts a victory for the Democratic Alliance: the center-right would obtain 34% of the votes, and the socialists 28%. In third place would be the extreme right of Chega (16%), although the public channel indicates that the high number of undecided people (16%) could cause a turn of events.

It will be the Portuguese, with their vote, who will decide today about the future of their country, who for much of the 20th century were deprived of the right to vote.