Turnout: 39.26%
About this election
The Portuguese presidential election of 24 January 2021, held at the height of a severe wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, returned the incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to a second term in a landslide, with 60.67% of the vote in the first round. The contest's other defining feature was the third-place breakthrough of André Ventura, leader of the radical-right Chega, who won almost 12% and announced the arrival of a durable far-right presence in Portuguese national politics.
The President of Portugal is directly elected for a five-year term by a two-round majority system, with a single re-election permitted. The office combines a largely non-executive, unifying role with significant reserve powers — appointing the prime minister, vetoing laws and dissolving parliament. The 2021 election took place under exceptional conditions: the country was in lockdown amid record infections, and although voting proceeded with health precautions, turnout was expected to fall sharply, complicating predictions about the relative standing of the challengers.
Marcelo sought re-election on his record of empathetic, consensual leadership through the wildfires of 2017 and the pandemic, and was widely expected to win easily. The contest for second place was the real drama: the Socialist-backed independent and former MEP Ana Gomes ran a vigorous campaign warning against the far right, while André Ventura of Chega sought to consolidate the protest vote and overtake her. The Communist João Ferreira, the Left Bloc's Marisa Matias, the liberal Tiago Mayan Gonçalves and the independent Vitorino Silva also stood.
Marcelo won 60.67%, an even larger margin than in 2016, and again carried all 22 constituencies. Ana Gomes finished second with 12.96%, narrowly ahead of André Ventura on 11.93% — though Ventura topped the poll for the runner-up slot in several southern districts, a warning sign of Chega's growing reach. João Ferreira took 4.31% and Marisa Matias 3.96%, both well down on the left's previous presidential showings. Turnout collapsed to 39.26%, the lowest in any Portuguese presidential election, reflecting both the pandemic and the foregone conclusion at the top of the ballot.
Marcelo began a second and final term that would span the turbulent end of the Costa era, two snap legislative elections and the rise of Chega from a single seat to the second-largest party in parliament. His own popularity remained high, but the 2021 result — a personally dominant President alongside a fast-fragmenting party system beneath him — foreshadowed the instability that would define Portuguese politics in the years that followed.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.