Chega leads emigration votes and becomes opposition leader
For the first time in history, the Socialist Party has become the third political force, with André Ventura's party taking second place by electing two deputies abroad and AD the remaining two.
The Socialist Party (PS) is now the third political force for the first time in its history, with Chega rising to second place and leader of the opposition, thanks to the votes of Portuguese emigrants. André Ventura’s party won two of the four seats in the emigrant constituencies, as it did a year ago, and the Democratic Alliance (AD) — the PSD/CDS coalition — won the remaining two, one more than in the 2024 legislative elections.
In an unprecedented result, the socialists did not win any seats from abroad, according to the vote count carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday. Last year, the party then led by Pedro Nuno Santos had still held on to one seat in the European constituency.
Thus, the AD will now occupy 91 seats in the next legislature. With the two mandates of the emigrants, the parliamentary group of the far-right party grows to 60 deputies and takes off from the PS, which remains reduced to 58 parliamentarians.
The center-right coalition led by Luís Montenegro elected José Manuel Fernandes for Europe, a position he had failed to win last year, and Chega will once again have José Dias for the same constituency. In the rest of the world, the AD guaranteed the re-election of José Cesário and Chega that of Manuel Magno Alves.
Chega won the votes of the emigrants, both in the constituency for Europe and in the constituency for Outside Europe. It came out ahead with 26.15% of the votes, followed by the AD (16.02%) and the PS (13.53%), according to the final data published on the website of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In Europe, Chega won in five consulates (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), while AD won in four (Germany, Spain and the Netherlands). The PS only managed to maintain its leadership in the “other European countries” table.
The winner in the rest of the world constituency was the PSD/CDS coalition, which managed to win in six tables (Africa, Canada, the USA, China and other countries in the Americas, Asia and Oceania). André Ventura’s party only came first in Brazil, repeating the feat of a year ago.
