Turnout: 30.75%
About this election
The 2019 European Parliament election in Portugal, held on 26 May 2019, was won by the governing Socialist Party (PS) under Prime Minister António Costa, which finished comfortably ahead of the centre-right PSD. Held just months before that year's national legislative election, the vote served as a barometer of the Costa government's standing — and confirmed the Socialists' dominance of the Portuguese centre-left going into the autumn.
Portugal elects its members of the European Parliament in a single nationwide constituency by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method, with closed party lists and no electoral threshold. In 2019 Portugal returned 21 MEPs, a total left unchanged by the post-Brexit redistribution of the departing United Kingdom's seats, which was directed to larger, more under-represented member states rather than to Portugal. Because the whole country forms one district, European elections in Portugal are a relatively pure test of national party strength, unmediated by the constituency geography that shapes legislative contests. Turnout, as across much of Europe, is markedly lower than in national elections.
The PS campaigned on Portugal's economic recovery and a pro-European message, presenting Costa's government as a stable, constructive voice in Brussels. The PSD, led nationally by Rui Rio, sought to use the European vote to rebuild momentum before the legislative election. The Left Bloc and the Communist-Green CDU pressed their critiques of EU economic governance from the left, while the People-Animals-Nature party (PAN) rode rising environmental concern. The campaign was relatively low-key, overshadowed by the looming national contest.
The PS won 33.40% and nine of the 21 seats, a clear victory. The PSD took 21.93% and six seats — a disappointing result that intensified pressure on its leadership. The Left Bloc won 9.83% and two seats, the CDU 6.89% and two, and the CDS–PP 6.19% and one. PAN achieved a notable breakthrough with 5.08% and its first MEP. Turnout was just 30.75%, broadly in line with previous European elections in Portugal and far below national-election levels.
The result strengthened António Costa's hand ahead of the October 2019 legislative election, which the PS duly won. It also confirmed the steady erosion of the smaller traditional parties and the early rise of new forces such as PAN — trends that would deepen over the following five years as the Portuguese party system fragmented and a radical right emerged.
The most telling figure of the night was the one that did not make headlines: turnout of just 30.75%, less than half the level Portugal records for a legislative election. European contests are the classic "second-order" vote — with no national government at stake, most citizens stay home, and those who turn out are freer to reward smaller and cause-driven parties than they would be in a general election. That dynamic explains both PAN's breakthrough on barely five per cent and the muted showing of the two big parties relative to their national strength. Reading the bars above as a straight forecast of the October legislative election would therefore have overstated the smaller parties and understated the PS and PSD, whose organisations mobilise far more effectively when the government itself is on the line.
Seen in hindsight, 2019 marked the end of an era of orderly two-party dominance. Over the following five years the Portuguese system splintered: the radical-right Chega grew from a single seat into the country's third force, the liberal Iniciativa Liberal emerged, and by the 2024 European election the PS and the centre-right were separated by less than a point with Chega and the liberals close behind. The 2019 result, with its comfortable Socialist lead and a field still dominated by the established parties, is the baseline against which that upheaval is measured; the Portugal hub sets the two European votes side by side.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.