Turnout: 59.91%
About this election
The Portuguese legislative election of 10 March 2024 ended eight years of Socialist government and produced the closest result in decades. The centre-right Democratic Alliance (Aliança Democrática, AD) — a revival of the PSD–CDS–PPM coalition, led by Luís Montenegro — narrowly edged the Socialist Party (PS), now led by Pedro Nuno Santos, while the radical-right Chega tripled its seats to become an unavoidable third force. No bloc held a majority, opening a period of fragile minority government.
Portugal elects its 230-member Assembly of the Republic by D'Hondt proportional representation across 22 constituencies, with 116 seats needed for a majority. The election was a snap poll, called by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa after the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa amid a corruption inquiry. Because the President had dissolved parliament rather than hand the premiership to another Socialist, the campaign effectively functioned as a referendum on a change of direction after the Costa era.
Montenegro's AD promised lower taxes, better public services — especially a strained national health service — and a clean break from the scandals of the outgoing government, while ruling out any deal with Chega. Pedro Nuno Santos sought to retain power for the PS by mobilising its base and warning against the far right. André Ventura's Chega ran an insurgent anti-corruption, anti-immigration and law-and-order campaign that drew large crowds, particularly among younger men and in the south. Iniciativa Liberal and the new Livre and PAN competed for the centre and green-left vote.
The AD won 28.84% and 80 seats; the PS took 28.00% and 78 — a margin of barely 0.8 points and two seats, decided only once the emigrant constituencies were counted. Chega surged to 18.07% and 50 seats, up from 12, confirming a structural realignment of the right. Iniciativa Liberal held eight seats, the Left Bloc five, and the Communist-led CDU and Livre four each, with PAN on one. The map fractured: the AD led the north and the islands; the PS held Lisbon, the centre and the southern Alentejo districts; and Chega, for the first time, topped the poll in a mainland constituency, winning Faro in the Algarve.
Luís Montenegro formed a minority AD government, governing without Chega's support but dependent on its abstention or that of the PS to pass legislation. The arrangement was inherently unstable, and just over a year later a confidence dispute linked to questions about the prime minister's family business brought the government down — triggering yet another snap election in May 2025, Portugal's third in just over three years.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.