- Paul Kirby in London and Alison Roberts in Lisbon
- bbc news
image source, Tiago Pettinga/EPA-EFE
Luis Montenegro faces the difficult task of forming a government
Portugal's center-right party won a narrow election victory but has little chance of forming a majority government.
Luis Montenegro, leader of the Democratic Alliance, told supporters that although the margin of victory was unconvincing, Portuguese people supported change.
Both major parties received approximately 29% of the vote.
Only the far-right Chega can achieve clear success.
Five years after it intervened in Portuguese politics, the party, led by former soccer commentator Andre Ventura, won 18% of the vote and secured 48 seats in the 230-member parliament.
Political commentators say Portugal faces its most divided parliament since the end of the dictatorship half a century ago.
Four months after Socialist Prime Minister António Costa resigned over corruption allegations, although he was never named as a suspect, 10 million Portuguese people had the chance to vote in a snap election on Sunday.
Late on Sunday night, Portuguese television viewers were told there was a “possible draw” between the Socialist Party (PS) and the centre-right Democratic Union, with only four seats yet to be declared outside Portugal. It was Mr. Costa who warned that this was a possibility.
Shortly thereafter, however, his successor as leader of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos, acknowledged victory and announced: ”
Luis Montenegro told his supporters that he was confident that the president of the republic would give the central government the power to form the next government.
“I have always said that winning an election means getting one more vote than any other candidate, and that I would only accept becoming prime minister in those circumstances.”
When all the votes were counted, his Democratic Alliance won 79 seats, excluding four outside seats, two more than its Socialist rivals.
He said voters have made it clear they want to form a new government, change policy and prioritize greater dialogue between political leaders.
Former center-right leader Luis Marquez Méndez said there had never been an election night like this: “I think there will be new elections early next year.”
With the exit polls clearly showing a victory for the centre-right, everything looked much clearer. As the leader's face appeared on television screens, supporters chanted “Portugal, Portugal”.
Even though the last election was just two years ago, turnout was 66%, the highest in years.
It soon became clear that the far-right party Chega (Enough) was intent on becoming the third force in Portuguese politics.
Andre Ventura has his sights set on Chega joining a right-wing government.
Andre Ventura's party won 18% of the vote with a campaign focused on corruption and immigration.
The former centre-right councilor said he and his party were hopeful of becoming kingmakers and hailed an “absolutely historic” night.
“This is the night the two-party system ended in Portugal,” he told cheering supporters. “Chega has historically received more than 1 million votes in Portugal.”
Luis Montenegro has already denounced Ventura, a former member of his party, as a xenophobe and racist, and vowed in his victory speech that he would not do any business with him.
Populists made dramatic gains, particularly in the south, including the Algarve, but were less successful in the northern coastal city of Porto.
The centre-right is not without its problems. The Social Democratic Party, which controls the Democratic Union, has been implicated in a regional scandal in Madeira.
Chega said the party stands ready to support the formation of the next government. But even though it has watered down some of its policies, such as abandoning the requirement for chemical castration of rapists, it seems unlikely that it will play any role at this stage.
It is also clear that the two major parties will not be able to find enough common ground to form a government.
That leaves the centre-right with the difficult task of securing support for next year's budget in October, as it looks to continue its minority government for months.
Finance Minister Fernando Medina, from the Socialist Party, warned of a “very fragile and unstable” political situation.
After years of economic weakness, the Socialist Party can claim to have restored Portugal to a 2.3% growth rate last year, even if its forecasts for 2024 were less optimistic.
But salaries are low and rents are rising, and the centre-left is increasingly dissatisfied.
Former presidential candidate Ana Gómez suggested that many voters in the Algarve supported Chega because the government had failed to address people's problems, such as rising prices and cuts to water supplies.
