by Andrei Khalip
LISBON (Reuters) – More than nine million Portuguese people are called to the polls on Sunday for early legislative elections with an uncertain outcome which could place the far right in the position of arbiter.
The vote, initially scheduled for October 2026, was called due to the resignation last November of Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa, whose name was cited in an investigation into corruption relating to the awarding of energy contracts.
Antonio Costa, whose chief of staff was arrested and a minister indicted, has always denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged.
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The public prosecutor’s case then “deflated”, the initial charges of corruption having been commuted to “influence peddling” in the attribution, in particular, of lithium exploration concessions, of which Portugal is the main producer in Europe.
Voters must renew the 230 seats in the Assembly of the Republic, with an absolute majority set at 116 deputies.
During the previous legislative elections, in January 2022, the Socialists won an absolute majority, with more than 41% of the vote. The contract affair has since left its mark.
In the latest polls, the Socialists, now led by Pedro Nuno Santos, a 46-year-old economist, are credited with less than 30% of voting intentions, just behind the center-right coalition of the Democratic Alliance (AD) of Luis Montenegro, 51-year-old lawyer.
The Democratic Alliance, which brings together the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the People’s Party (PP) and the Monarchist People’s Party (PPM), is not guaranteed to obtain an absolute majority, according to opinion polls.
This uncertain scenario – some 20% of those questioned have not yet made their choice according to several surveys – benefits the far-right Chega party (“Enough”, in Portuguese), led by André Ventura, a 41-year-old former seminarian. became a television sports commentator.
The latter, who received 7% of the votes in 2022, is credited with 15% to 20% of voting intentions. He advocates in particular the reinstatement of the death penalty, the establishment of chemical castration for repeat rape offenders and “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration.
(French version Sophie Louet, edited by Kate Entringer)
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