He is the unlikely champion. Moderate right-wing leader Luis Montenegro was appointed Prime Minister of Portugal on the night of Wednesday to Thursday March 21. A victory which has a “but”: due to his narrow victory in the legislative elections on March 10, he will have to form a minority government and deal with a clearly growing far right. Under these conditions, the 51-year-old trained lawyer and seasoned parliamentarian will succeed the socialist Antonio Costain power since the end of 2015.
The candidate of the Democratic Alliance (AD) will present the composition of his government next Wednesday, and it should take office on April 2, he told the press during a brief statement at the end of a meeting with the President of the Republic, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. This meeting marked the end of the consultations that the head of state was to hold with the political parties represented in Parliament before inviting the winner of the elections to form the new government.
According to the full results announced at the same time, which made it possible to allocate the four seats in the foreign constituencies, the AD won the elections by a very narrow margin over the Socialist Party (PS). Luis Montenegro’s party won 28.8% of the vote and 80 deputies out of a total of 230. It will therefore remain far from the threshold of 116 elected representatives, synonymous with an absolute majority, but its head of the list had already said it was ready to form a minority government.
Chega, the country’s third force
“It’s a relative majority. […] It is on the basis of this majority that, if the President of the Republic hears it, we will present our government”, he underlined on Wednesday at the end of the day, after a first audience with the President. Surprised by the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who did not seek a new mandate after being cited in an investigation for influence peddling, the PS finished second with 28% of the votes and 78 seats.
The far-right Chega (Enough) party, for its part, clearly strengthened its status as the third political force in the country, going from 12 to 50 deputies, with a score of 18.1%. The president of Chega, André Ventura, reaffirmed Monday his desire to reach an agreement with the moderate right to form a stable majority, without necessarily entering the government, while threatening to oppose it if it refused to open negotiations.
Luis Montenegro, however, repeated after his electoral victory that he would refuse to lead the country with the support of the far right, as he had done throughout the campaign. The new boss of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos, said he was ready on Tuesday to vote for a budget amendment to increase the salaries of teachers, police officers, caregivers and clerks. However, he warned that a favorable vote by the Socialists on the state budget for 2025 was “practically impossible”. In Portugal, the executive does not need a vote in Parliament to take office. The autumn budget deadline therefore appears to be the first test by fire for the next Prime Minister.
A first trip to Brussels
In the event of an impasse, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be called upon to fully play his role as mediator, especially since he cannot dissolve Parliament again before six months. In Brussels for his last European Council, the outgoing Prime Minister assured that “there will be no change in European policy or foreign policy” of Portugal. “Even Chega, unlike far-right parties in other countries in Europe, has never campaigned against the European Union or exploited any Eurosceptic attitude,” argued Antonio Costa. Luis Montenegro also plans to travel to Brussels, to participate in a meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP) on Thursday morning.
Beyond the legal disputes which brought down the outgoing socialist government, Luis Montenegro is also the target of an investigation concerning the tax advantages he benefited from during the construction of a luxurious villa in Espinho. Pans that he hopes to forget once installed in power. “I know that people expect more from me than what I have been able to show so far,” admitted in November this 51-year-old man with a solid build, blue-green eyes and a dimple in his chin, during the launch of his campaign. It remains to be seen what he will do now.