Portugal will elect a new president on Sunday. Never have the elections for the head of state had such an uncertain outcome as this time. Four or five of the eleven candidates are practically tied.
They are: Luís Marques Mendes, former minister and ex-chairman of the currently ruling conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD), André Ventura, leader of the right-wing extremist Chega (Enough), António José Seguro of the Socialist Party (PS) and the retired Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo. Some polls put liberal MEP João Cotrim de Figueiredo in fifth place. Almost eleven million people are eligible to vote.
There is one certainty and one fear: for the second time in the history of the now 50-year-old democracy there will be a runoff election. And it is likely that one of the two candidates will be the right-wing extremist André Ventura. The decision on the future head of state will probably not be made until February 8th.
Second candidate for the runoff election still unclear
It remains to be seen who the second candidate in the runoff election will be. In the weeks since the start of the year, the survey results have changed several times. For a long time, Admiral Gouveia e Melo was considered the favorite. He was head of the Portuguese army and made a name for himself as the person responsible for the first vaccination campaign against Covid. However, recent polls give him little chance of making it to the second round.
The conservative Marques Mendes and the socialist Seguro have now overtaken the admiral. Seguro in particular has seen strong growth. The longer the election campaign runs, the more voters he can unite behind him.
The right-wing extremist candidate André Ventura announces that the Portuguese must have priority
With André Ventura, once a sports commentator on television, a candidate who openly openly received great support for the first time democracy that emerged from the Carnation Revolution in 1974 rejects and glorifies the Salazar dictatorship. He and his Chega party are spending a lot on the election campaign. Even in the smallest towns, his photo can be seen on huge election posters. He announces that the Portuguese must have priority and immigrants should not live on social benefits. He had to take down a poster in which he agitated against the Roma minority on the instructions of the electoral authorities.
President with extensive powers
If someone like the right-wing extremist Ventura were actually elected head of state, it would have unforeseeable consequences. Because Portugal has a semi-presidential government system. Unlike in Germany, the Portuguese president does not only have representative tasks.
He is commander-in-chief of the army and can – as happened three times in recent years under President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – dissolve parliament and call new elections. He can also stop laws and refer them to the Constitutional Court if he considers them to be unconstitutional, as was the case last year a new immigration law happen. In the coming months, this law will come back to parliament following a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
During the election campaign, Ventura repeatedly announced that, if elected president, he would intervene in politics to a greater extent than any head of state has ever done. Like conservative Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, he wants to abolish the right to citizenship for children of migrants who were born in Portugal, as well as the immigration advantages of people from former Portuguese colonies.