The next Portuguese legislative election will take place on or before 11 October 2026 to elect members of the Assembly of the Republic to the 16th Legislature of Portugal. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic will be at stake.
Background
The Socialist Party (PS), led by Prime Minister António Costa, won an absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election with 41% of the votes and 120 seats in the 230 seat Assembly of the Republic. The main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), got 77 seats and 29% of the votes, while far-right party Chega (Enough) gain 12 seats and 7%. The Liberal Initiative (IL) were able to win 8 seats and gather almost 5% of the votes. The far-left parties, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE), achieved one of their worst results ever with 4% of the votes and 6 and 5 seats, respectively. PAN and LIVRE were able to win just one seat each.
António Costa's third government was sworn in on 30 March 2022. This government has been very unstable with several scandals and/or controversies affecting it and until mid 2023, the government had already suffered 13 resignations, 11 Secretaries of state and 2 Ministers. The main controversy that engulfed the government was a case regarding TAP Air Portugal and a reparation payment to a government member, Alexandra Reis. This case was followed by an incident, in late April 2023, at the Ministry of Infrastructure building between government staff and an advisor to Minister João Galamba regarding an alleged stolen laptop. The use of the Portuguese Secret Services in this case generated a clash between President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa regarding the continuity of minister João Galamba and of the government itself.
Politics of Portugal
The President of Portugal has the power to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic by their own will. Unlike in other countries, the President can refuse to dissolve the parliament at the request of the Prime Minister or the Assembly of the Republic and all the parties represented in Parliament. If the Prime Minister resigns, the President must appoint a new Prime Minister after listening to all the parties represented in Parliament and then the government programme must be subject to discussion by the Assembly of the Republic, whose members of parliament may present a motion to reject the upcoming government.
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 but is not called at the request of the Prime Minister; 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 after 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 11 October 2026.
Leadership changes and challenges
CDS – People's Party
In the 2022 elections, the CDS–People's Party was wiped out from Parliament for the first time in 47 years of democracy. CDS leader Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos resigned on election night and announced that a leadership ballot would be held. On 11 February, it was announced that a new leader would be elected in a party congress on 2 and 3 April 2022 held in Guimarães. MEP Nuno Melo, former MP Nuno Correia da Silva, 2016 leadership candidate Miguel Mattos Chaves and Bruno Filipe Costa announced they would contest the ballot. During the congress, Bruno Filipe Costa and Nuno Correia da Silva dropped out from the race. Nuno Melo was easily elected as leader with more than 73% of the votes. The results were the following:
|- style="background-color:#0c68b0" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|% |- |bgcolor=| | align=left | Nuno Melo | align=right | 854 | align=right | 77.5 |- |bgcolor=| | align=left | Miguel Mattos Chaves | align=right | 104 | align=right | 9.4 |- |bgcolor=| | align=left | Others | align=right | 144 | align=right | 13.1 |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout | align=right | 1,102 | align=center | |- | colspan="4" align=left|Source: Results |}