Incumbent right has edge as Portugal heads to snap polls

LISBON: Portugal will hold its third early elections in three years next Sunday, with polls suggesting that outgoing centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro may have an edge in another hung parliament.

Montenegro triggered the snap polls when he lost a confidence vote he had himself proposed after the opposition called for an inquiry into potential conflicts of interest related to a family consultancy firm. The 52-year-old lawyer has been in office since April 2024.

His Democratic Alliance (AD) had just 80 MPs in the 230-seat parliament and the inquiry would have dogged his government for months, distracting attention from policy.

University of Lisbon analyst Antonio Costa Pinto told AFP that Montenegro was gambling that the election would ensure his “political survival” and perhaps even strengthen his position. “Seeking renewed legitimacy through elections was a risky choice, but a calculated one,” he added.

Opinion polls suggest the results of the May 18 vote will be similar to those of the last election in March 2024, which produced a hung parliament. The Democratic Alliance has 32 percent support, against 26.7 percent for the main opposition Socialist Party (PS) led by 48-year-old economist Pedro Nuno Santos, according to an online poll aggregator run by Radio Renascenca.