Politics in Portugal operates as a unitary multi-party semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Portugal is the head of government, and the President of Portugal is the non-executive head of state which, although it is a somewhat ceremonial figure, has some significant political powers they exercise often. Executive power is exercised by the Government, whose leader is the prime minister. Legislative power is primarily vested in the Assembly of the Republic, although the government is also able to legislate on certain matters. The Judiciary of Portugal is independent of the executive and the legislature. The President exerts a sort of "moderating power", not easily classified into any of the traditional three branches of government.
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel by militants who were at the time with the Portuguese Socialist Action. The PS is a member of the Socialist International, Progressive Alliance and Party of European Socialists, and has eight members in the European Parliament within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group during the 10th European Parliament.
The Social Democratic Party is a liberal-conservative political party in Portugal that is currently the country's ruling party. Commonly known by its colloquial initials PSD, on ballot papers its initials appear as its official form PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, the Democratic People's Party. A party of the centre-right, the PSD is one of the two major parties in Portuguese politics, its rival being the Socialist Party (PS) on the centre-left.
The Left Bloc, colloquially shortened as O Bloco, is a left-wing populist and democratic socialist political party in Portugal founded in 1999. It is currently led by Mariana Mortágua.
António Luís Santos da Costa is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and XXIII Constitutional Governments (2022–2024). Following this, Costa will take up the post of President of the European Council in December 2024.
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, commonly known as José Sócrates, is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted as the president-in-office of the Council of the European Union.
The 2005 Portuguese legislative election took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
Fernando Teixeira dos SantosGOIH is a Portuguese economist and professor. He was Minister of Finance in the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Government of Portugal, led by José Sócrates.
The Third Portuguese Republic is a period in the history of Portugal corresponding to the current democratic regime installed after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, that put an end to the paternal autocratic regime of Estado Novo of António de Oliveira Salazar and Marcelo Caetano. It was initially characterized by constant instability and was threatened by the possibility of a civil war during the early post-revolutionary years. A new constitution was drafted, censorship was prohibited, free speech declared, political prisoners were released and major Estado Novo institutions were closed. Eventually the country granted independence to its African colonies and begun a process of democratization that led to the accession of Portugal to the EEC in 1986.
The 2009 Portuguese legislative election was held on 27 September, to renew all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates, won the largest number of seats, but didn't repeat the overall majority they gained in 2005.
Manuel António Gomes de Almeida de Pinho is a former Portuguese Minister of Economy and Innovation (2005–09) in the José Sócrates cabinet, who subsequently became an energy policy academic (2010–17) under circumstances that led to indictments in Portugal in 2017 and 2019, to house arrest since 2021, and to multiple charges of passive corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering in 2022. According to those charges, Pinho received, while in office, at least 4.5 million euros in secret monthly offshore payments from his prior and subsequent boss Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgado whose Espírito Santo Financial Group benefited from several of Pinho's decisions as minister.
Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) between 2010 and 2018.
The 2011 Portuguese legislative election was held on 5 June, to elect all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. Pedro Passos Coelho led the centre-right Social Democratic Party to victory over the Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates. Despite a historically low turnout of less than 60 percent of registered voters, the right-wing won a clear mandate, winning nearly 130 MPs, more than 56 percent of the seats, and just over 50 percent of the vote. While the People's Party, continuing the trend they began in 2009, earned their best score since 1983, the Social Democrats exceeded the expected result in the opinion polls and won the same number of seats as they did in 2002, when the PSD was led by José Manuel Durão Barroso. Of the twenty districts of the country, Pedro Passos Coelho's party won seventeen, including Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Santarém and the Azores, that tend to favor the Socialist Party.
The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October. All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention.
António José Martins Seguro is a Portuguese politician for the Socialist Party (PS). Seguro was Secretary General of the PS from 2011 until September 2014, and he was the leader of the largest opposition party in the Portuguese Parliament.
The 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis was part of the wider downturn of the Portuguese economy that started in 2001 and possibly ended between 2016 and 2017. The period from 2010 to 2014 was probably the hardest and more challenging part of the entire economic crisis; this period includes the 2011–14 international bailout to Portugal and was marked by intense austerity policies, more intense than the wider 2001-2017 crisis. Economic growth stalled in Portugal between 2001 and 2002, and following years of internal economic crisis, the worldwide Great Recession started to hit Portugal in 2008 and eventually led to the country being unable to repay or refinance its government debt without the assistance of third parties. To prevent an insolvency situation in the debt crisis, Portugal applied in April 2011 for bail-out programs and drew a cumulated €78 billion from the IMF, the EFSM, and the EFSF. Portugal exited the bailout in May 2014, the same year that positive economic growth re-appeared following three years of recession. The government achieved a 2.1% budget deficit in 2016 and in 2017 the economy grew 2.7%.
Maria Luís Casanova Morgado Dias de Albuquerque is a Portuguese politician. She served as Minister of State and Finance between 2013 and 2015.
The Economic Adjustment Programme for Portugal, usually referred to as the Bailout programme, is a Memorandum of understanding on financial assistance to the Portuguese Republic in order to cope with the 2010–14 Portuguese financial crisis.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Portugal in January 2026. The elections will elect the successor to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is barred from running for a third term.
Pedro Nuno de Oliveira Santos is a Portuguese economist and politician, who is the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party. Santos previously held positions in the Portuguese Government under António Costa, first as Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, from November 2015 to February 2019, and afterwards as Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, from February 2019 to December 2022.
