Portugal polls marked by far-right surge
LISBON
Lader of far-right party Chega Andre Ventura celebrates results during the election night at their headquarters in Lisbon on May 18, 2025
Portugal's incumbent center-right party won the most seats in the country's third general election in three years on May 18, but again fell short of a parliamentary majority, while support for the far-right Chega rose.
Near complete official results showed that Prime Minister Luis Montenegro's Democratic Alliance (AD) captured 32.7 percent of the vote in the poll with the Socialist Party (PS) and Chega virtually tied in second place.
That would boost the AD's seat tally in the 230-seat parliament to 89, short of the 116 seats required for a ruling majority.
The Socialists had 23.4 percent, their worst result in decades, trailed closely by Chega ("Enough") with 22.6 percent, which would give each party 58 seats.
Even with the backing of upstart business-friendly party Liberal Initiative (IL) that won nine seats, the AD would still need the support of Chega to pass legislation.
But Montenegro, 52, a lawyer by profession, has refused any alliance with anti-establishment party, saying it is "unreliable" and "not suited to governing."
Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by Andre Ventura, a former trainee priest who later became a television football commentator.
It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election in 2019, the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament, the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal's parliament since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship.
Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by similar parties across Europe.
There are still four seats left to be assigned representing Portuguese who live abroad, and Ventura said he was confident Chega would pick up a few and become the country's second political force for the first time, ahead of the Socialists.
"Nothing will ever be the same again," Ventura told his supporters, who chanted "Portugal is ours and it always will be."
