1985 Portuguese legislative election

1985 Portuguese legislative election

←  1983 6 October 1985 1987  →
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 126 seats needed for a majority
Registered	7,818,981 6.6%
Turnout	5,798,929 (74.2%) 3.6 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Almeida Santos Hermínio Martinho Party PSD PS PRD Leader since 2 June 1985 13 June 1985 (interim) 10 July 1985 Leader's seat Lisbon Porto Santarém Last election 75 seats, 27.2% 101 seats, 36.1% Did not contest Seats won 88 57 45 Seat change 13 44 45 Popular vote 1,732,288 1,204,321 1,038,893 Percentage 29.9% 20.8% 17.9% Swing 2.7 pp 15.3 pp New party   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Álvaro Cunhal Francisco Lucas Pires Party PCP CDS Alliance APU Leader since 14 April 1978 20 February 1983 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 44 seats, 18.1% 30 seats, 12.6% Seats won 38 22 Seat change 6 8 Popular vote 898,281 577,580 Percentage 15.5% 10.0% Swing 2.6 pp 2.6 pp
Vote winner strength by district Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Mário Soares PS Prime Minister after election Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD

The 1985 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

In June of the same year, the then incumbent Prime Minister, Mário Soares, resigned from the job due to the lack of parliamentary support, the government was composed by a coalition of the two major parties, the center-right Social Democratic and the center-left Socialist, in what was called the Central Bloc, however this was an unstable balance of forces and several members of each party opposed such alliance.

The new leader of the Social Democratic Party, Cavaco Silva, elected in May, was among those that never supported such alliance, and short after being elected leader of the party made the coalition fall in July. Mário Soares didn't run again and resigned as party leader, as he decided to run for the 1986 Presidential elections. The PS nominated Almeida Santos, minister of state in Soares government, as intern leader and as the party candidate for Prime Minister.

A new election was called by the President and the Social Democrats won with a short majority and Cavaco became the Prime-Minister. The election was the first of three consecutive election victories for the Social Democratic Party. Meanwhile, a new party had been founded by supporters of the President Ramalho Eanes, the Democratic Renewal Party, led by Hermínio Martinho and which the main figure of the party's campaign was First lady Manuela Ramalho Eanes, ^[1] that surprisingly gained 45 MPs and more than one million votes in the election, becoming the parliamentary support of the Cavaco's government until 1987, when it removed its support, making Cavaco fall.

The Communists and the Socialists lost votes and MPs, and the left would only return to the government ten years later, in 1995.

Background

Government fall

See also: 1983 Portuguese legislative election § Fall of the government

The unpopularity of the Central Bloc government was creating deep rifts between PS and PSD and also within both parties, as growing poverty, budget cuts and unemployment, due to the International Monetary Fund bailout policies, were leading to massive protests. In February 1985, Carlos Mota Pinto resigned from the PSD leadership and planned to contest the next party congress. ^[2] However, he died before the congress and Cavaco Silva was elected as leader. Shortly after his election, Cavaco Silva withdraw his party from the government and Soares Central Bloc government fell. ^[3]

Leadership changes and challenges

PSD 1985 leadership election

By 1985, deep divisions were consuming the PSD regarding their role in the Central Bloc government with the PS. ^[4] Then deputy Prime Minister and PSD leader Carlos Mota Pinto, resigned from the government and the party's leadership and a snap party congress was called. ^[5] But, Mota Pinto, who was expected to run for the leadership in the snap congress, died suddenly just 10 days before the start of the congress in Figueira da Foz. ^[6] João Salgueiro, the candidate from "Mota Pinto's wing" was expected to win easily, but former finance minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva surprised the party by announcing a late candidacy, in what is now known as the "Running-in of Cavaco's new Citroën". ^[7] Cavaco Silva had the support of the wings against the Central Bloc, and against all odds he defeated Salgueiro by just 57 votes. ^[8] The results were the following:

Ballot: 19 May 1985

Candidate		Votes	%
	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	422	53.6
	João Salgueiro	365	46.4
Turnout		787
Source: Results [9]

PS 1985 nomination selection

After the fall of the Central Bloc government, Mário Soares was acclaimed as the PS candidate for the 1986 Presidential election, and shortly after, António Almeida Santos was unanimously selected as the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 1985 general elections. ^[10]

Ballot: 3 September 1985

Candidate		Votes	%
	António Almeida Santos	Voice vote
Turnout			100.0
Source:

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 250 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 126 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved. ^[11]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. ^[12] The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties. ^[13]

For these elections, and compared with the 1983 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following: ^[14]

District	Number of MPs	Map
Lisbon	56	16 6 39 6 4 15 10 5 11 6 11 12 56 3 5 17 5 9 5 5 2 2
Porto (+1)	39
Setúbal	17
Braga	16
Aveiro	15
Santarém	12
Leiria and Coimbra	11
Viseu	10
Faro	9
Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real	6
Azores, Beja, Évora, Guarda and Madeira	5
Bragança	4
Portalegre (–1)	3
Europe and Outside Europe	2

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 3rd legislature (1983–1985) and that also partook in the election:

Name			Ideology	Political position	Leader	1983 result [15]
						%	Seats
	PS	Socialist Party Partido Socialista	Social democracy	Centre-left	Almeida Santos	36.1%	94 / 250
	UEDS	Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy União da Esquerda para a Democracia Socialista	Democratic Socialism Workers' self-management	Left-wing	António Lopes Cardoso		4 / 250
	ASDI	Independent Social-Democratic Action Acção Social Democrata Independente	Democratic Socialism Social democracy	Centre-left	António de Sousa Franco		3 / 250
	PPD/PSD	Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	27.2%	75 / 250
	PCP	Portuguese Communist Party Partido Comunista Português	Communism Marxism–Leninism	Far-left	Álvaro Cunhal	18.1% [a]	41 / 250
	MDP/CDE	Portuguese Democratic Movement Movimento Democrático Português	Left-wing nationalism Democratic socialism	Left-wing	José Manuel Tengarrinha		3 / 250
	CDS	Democratic and Social Centre Centro Democrático e Social	Christian democracy	Centre-right to right-wing	Francisco Lucas Pires	12.6%	30 / 250

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance		Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	PS	« O que prometo, faço. Vamos a isto. »	"What I promise, I do. Let's do this."	[16]
	PSD	« Retomar a esperança »	"Resuming hope"	[17]
	APU	« Vitória da APU para salvar o país »	"Victory for APU to save the country"	[18]
	CDS	« Confiança, razão, força para Portugal »	"Trust, reason, strength for Portugal"	[19]
	PRD	« Mais Portugal »	"More Portugal"	[20]

Candidates' debates

1985 Portuguese legislative election debates
Date	Organisers	Moderator(s)	P Present   A Absent invitee N Non-invitee
			PS Santos	PSD Cavaco	APU Cunhal	CDS Pires	Refs
3 Sep	RTP1		P	A [b]	P	P	[21]
5 Sep	RTP1		N	A [c]	P	P	[22]
10 Sep	RTP1		P	P	N	P	[23]
12 Sep	RTP1		P	P	P	N	[23]
Candidate viewed as "most convincing" in each debate
Date	Organisers	Polling firm/Link
			PS	PSD	APU	CDS	Notes
3 Sep	RTP1	Expresso	36	—	23	25	16% Neither

Opinion polling

See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1983 and 1985 for reference.

  Exit poll

Date Released	Polling Firm	PS					Others	Lead
6 Oct 1985	Leg. election	20.8 57	29.9 88	15.5 38	10.0 22	17.9 45	5.9 0	9.1
6 Oct 1985(22:50)	RTP1	22.0–26.9	26.8–29.7	15.0–18.1	9.3–10.8	14.5–16.5	–	2.8–4.8
6 Oct 1985 (21:10)	RTP1	23.8–26.9	28.0–29.8	17.3–18.1	9.8–10.7	11.1–14.9	–	2.9–6.0
6 Oct 1985	Rádio Comercial	19.0–22.0	29.0–31.0	14.0–16.0	8.0–16.0	18.0–22.0	–	9.0–10.0
4 Oct 1985	Expresso	28.0–32.0	27.0–31.0	15.0–17.0	9.0–12.0	8.0–11.0	–	1.0
29 Apr 1985	Norma	24.7	16.4	18.4	17.1	8.4	15.0	6.3
Mar 1985	Norma	21.1	18.4	20.0	19.2	5.5	15.8	1.1
Feb 1985	Marktest	15.0	21.3	15.0	17.1	28.6	3.0	7.3
25 Feb 1985	Norma	20.7	21.6	17.8	17.6	10.0	12.3	0.9
21 Jan 1985	Norma	21.3	22.9	20.3	16.2	—	19.3	1.6
Dec 1984	Marktest	18.6	23.0	14.3	16.2	25.4	2.5	2.4
Dec 1984	Norma	23.5	25.2	23.4	13.2	—	14.7	1.7
Nov 1984	Marktest	19.8	24.0	15.5	14.9	23.3	2.5	0.7
Nov 1984	Norma	20.7	22.7	22.4	17.5	—	16.7	0.3
Oct 1984	Marktest	20.6	23.4	15.8	13.4	25.0	1.8	4.0
15 Oct 1984	Norma	23.9	24.8	23.1	14.7	—	13.5	0.9
Sep 1984	Marktest	18.8	22.6	15.2	15.7	26.6	1.1	4.0
Aug 1984	Marktest	19.2	22.8	13.8	15.6	26.9	1.7	4.1
Jul 1984	Marktest	17.9	20.6	16.9	13.4	29.0	2.2	7.7
Jul 1984	Norma	21.5	23.6	20.3	15.4	—	19.2	2.1
Jun 1984	Marktest	19.8	16.7	16.6	16.9	27.5	2.5	7.7
Jun 1984	Norma	24.2	21.5	22.1	17.0	—	15.2	2.1
May 1984	Marktest	25.4	19.8	13.9	14.6	24.6	1.7	0.8
Apr 1984	Marktest	28.7	19.5	15.2	10.8	17.7	8.1	9.2
Apr 1984	Norma	21.9	26.0	21.4	15.7	—	15.0	4.1
Mar 1984	Marktest	22.6	16.6	14.1	12.7	15.0	19.0	6.0
Feb 1984	Marktest	18.3	15.9	12.4	10.3	20.8	22.3	2.5
Jan 1984	Marktest	19.9	15.4	12.5	7.3	22.7	22.2	2.8
Jan 1984	Norma	31.8	22.8	21.2	13.3	—	10.9	9.0
25 Apr 1983	Leg. election	36.1 101	27.2 75	18.1 44	12.6 30	Did not exist	6.0 0	8.9

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 6 October 1985 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1983	1985	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	1,732,288	29.87	2.7	75	88	13	35.20	5.2	1.18
	Socialist	1,204,321	20.77	15.3	101	57	44	22.80	17.6	1.10
	Democratic Renewal	1,038,893	17.92	—	—	45	—	18.00	—	1.00
	United People Alliance [d]	898,281	15.49	2.6	44	38	6	15.20	2.4	0.98
	Democratic and Social Centre	577,580	9.96	2.6	30	22	8	8.80	3.2	0.88
	People's Democratic Union	73,401	1.27	0.8	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Christian Democratic	41,831	0.72	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist	35,238	0.61	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	19,943	0.34	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	19,085	0.33	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Communist Party (Reconstructed)	12,749	0.22	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,653,610	97.49	0.1	250	250	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		48,709	0.84	0.1
Invalid ballots		96,610	1.67	0.1
Total		5,798,929	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,818,981	74.16	3.6
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share PSD   29.87% PS   20.77% PRD   17.92% APU   15.49% CDS   9.96% UDP   1.27% PDC   0.72% PSR   0.61% Others   0.89% Blank/Invalid   2.51%

Parliamentary seats PSD   35.20% PS   22.80% PRD   18.00% APU   15.20% CDS   8.80%

Distribution by constituency

Results of the 1985 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency

Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	PSD		PS		PRD		APU		CDS
Azores	48.3	3	20.1	1	15.2	1	4.4	-	6.5	-	5
Aveiro	38.4	6	23.0	4	13.4	2	6.5	1	13.5	2	15
Beja	13.7	1	20.1	1	11.6	-	44.9	3	2.2	-	5
Braga	32.8	6	21.8	4	16.8	3	8.5	1	14.0	2	16
Bragança	39.2	2	22.7	1	6.9	-	5.3	-	17.1	1	4
Castelo Branco	31.2	3	18.5	1	24.4	2	8.9	-	9.6	-	6
Coimbra	29.5	4	28.5	3	16.9	2	10.1	1	8.6	1	11
Évora	19.1	1	14.3	1	15.8	1	41.2	2	3.3	-	5
Faro	28.4	3	22.3	2	20.5	2	15.4	2	6.1	-	9
Guarda	33.6	2	23.3	2	10.9	-	5.2	-	19.5	1	5
Leiria	38.6	5	19.6	2	15.3	2	7.9	1	12.2	1	11
Lisbon	25.6	15	19.8	12	21.3	13	20.1	12	8.1	4	56
Madeira	56.8	4	13.2	1	9.7	-	3.2	-	7.8	-	5
Portalegre	20.9	1	23.7	1	18.9	-	25.2	1	4.9	-	3
Porto	29.3	12	23.6	10	20.5	8	12.1	5	9.8	4	39
Santarém	27.8	4	18.6	2	23.8	3	16.4	2	7.7	1	12
Setúbal	15.4	3	16.5	3	20.4	4	38.2	7	3.8	-	17
Viana do Castelo	33.5	3	18.4	1	16.2	1	8.2	-	16.6	1	6
Vila Real	42.2	3	23.0	2	8.6	-	5.9	-	12.5	1	6
Viseu	37.7	5	20.0	2	10.9	1	5.0	-	19.9	2	10
Europe	24.3	1	24.2	1	7.1	-	18.8	-	17.3	-	2
Outside Europe	40.5	1	7.8	-	3.3	-	2.6	-	37.9	1	2
Total	29.9	88	20.8	57	17.9	45	15.5	38	10.0	22	250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

• 
  Winner and seats by constituency.
• 
  Most voted political force by municipality.

Aftermath

Fall of the government

In early 1987, a trip of a Portuguese parliamentary delegation to the Soviet Union created a diplomatic issue as the delegation also traveled to Estonia, a territory that wasn't recognized by the Portuguese State as a Soviet controlled territory. Because of this incident, Opposition parties accused Cavaco Silva of disallowing Parliament and, shortly after, the Democratic Renewal Party proposed a motion of no confidence against the Government, and the party's leader, Hermínio Martinho, communicated to President Mário Soares their intentions. ^[24] At first, the Socialists weren't supportive of the PRD's motion, but, last minute negotiations led the PS to also support the motion. On 3 April 1987, the motion passes by a 134 to 108 vote and the government falls: ^[25]

Motion of no confidence Aníbal Cavaco Silva (PSD)
Ballot →		3 April 1987
Required majority →		126 out of 250 Y
	No • PSD (86) • CDS (21) • Ind. Rui Oliveira e Costa (1)	108 / 250
	Yes • PS (55) • PRD (43) • PCP (34) • MDP/CDE (1) • Ind. Maria Santos (1)	134 / 250
	Abstentions • Ind. Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (1)	1 / 250
	Absentees • PRD (2) • PSD (1) • PS (1) • PCP (1) • CDS (1) • MDP/CDE (1)	7 / 250
Sources [26] [27]

Mário Soares was in an official trip to Brazil when he was informed, which unpleased the President, and he then returned to Lisbon to meet with parties. The PS, PRD and PCP proposed an alternative government to the PSD minority, but Soares rejected and called a snap general election for 19 July 1987, which resulted in a landslide PSD majority government. ^[28]

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal

Notes

1. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE) contested the 1983 election in a coalition called United People Alliance (APU) and won a combined 18.1% of the vote and elected 44 MPs to parliament.
2. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, PSD leader, refused to participate in the debate.
3. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, PSD leader, refused to participate in the debate, being replaced by Eurico de Melo, however, the latter was forbidden from participating.Fundação Mário Soares 1985
4. Portuguese Communist Party (35 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.

References

1. "PRD", Diario de Notícias, 30 May 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
2. "A crise económica que levou Portugal a provar pela primeira vez a receita do FMI" (in Portuguese). Público. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
3. "19 de Maio de 1985: O líder inesperado" (in Portuguese). Expresso. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
4. "1985 o ano que lançou Cavaco, por Ferreira Fernandes", Diario de Notícias, 9 March 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
5. "Bloco Central junta PS e PSD", Diario de Notícias, 7 January 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
6. "Mota Pinto, o aliado de Soares que militava no PPD", Público, 15 January 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
7. "19 de Maio de 1985: O líder inesperado ", Expresso, 17 May 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
8. "Cavaco Silva e as Eleições Legislativas de 1985: uma Introdução", Alexandre António da Costa Luís, 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
9. "Aníbal Cavaco Silva, o PSD e a Evolução da Democracia Portuguesa: o XI Governo Constitucional (1987-1991)", Nuno Marques Freire, UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR Faculdade de Ciências Socias e Humanas, October 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
10. "Quando o candidato do PS não foi o líder", Diario de Notícias, 3 June 2014. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
11. "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
12. "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
13. Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
14. "Eleição da Assembleia da República de 6 de Outubro de 1985". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Eleição da Assembleia da República de 6 de Outubro de 1985. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
15. Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos
16. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1985 – PS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
17. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1985 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
18. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1985 – APU". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
19. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1985 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
20. "Evolução da Comunicação Política e Eleitoral em Portugal" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
21. "Líderes partidários em confronto na TV". Fundação Mário Soares (in Portuguese). 1985. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
22. "Álvaro Cunhal/Lucas Pires esta noite na RTP". Fundação Mário Soares (in Portuguese). 1985. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
23. "Eleições ganham-se na TV?". Fundação Mário Soares (in Portuguese). 1985. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
24. "1987. Da moção de censura à primeira maioria de Cavaco". Ionline (in Portuguese). Jornal i. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
25. "A única moção de censura e as duas moções de rejeição que derrubaram governos" (in Portuguese). Jornal Económico. 20 February 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
26. "MOÇÕES / CENSURA - CONFIANÇA - REJEIÇÃO DO PROGRAMA" (PDF). Assembly of the Republic (in Portuguese). Lisbon. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
27. "Debates Parlamentares". Assembly of the Republic (in Portuguese). Lisbon. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
28. "Crise. Soares dissolveu em 1987. Cavaco não o pode fazer em 2015" (in Portuguese). Jornal i. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2022.

Sources

• Fundação Mário Soares (1985). "Eurico de Melo parte loiça nos estúdios de televisão" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político